Thank That Star
by hollybaggins
Summary: There weren't many things in life that scared Lydia Bolton. Introducing her first boyfriend to her parents was an exception. A continuation of "Broken" set twelve years later. Rated 'T' for language. T&G.
1. Thank That Star

"**Thank That Star****"**** copyright hollybaggins; November 18****th**** 2008**

**This is a derivate piece of fiction featuring characters copyrighted and trademarked by Disney Enterprises Inc. It is based upon **_**High School Musical, **_**copyright 2006 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved; and **_**High School Musical 2, **_**copyright 2007 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved; and **_**High School Musical 3, **_**copyright 2008 by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., all rights reserved. The author is not connected with nor is this work authorised by Walt Disney Enterprises Inc., or any other motion picture studios. This work is solely intended for posting on Fanfiction, for the benefit and enjoyment of its intended audience. No commercial or financial benefit accrues or is intended to accrue to the author as a result of said posting. Any unauthorised copying or redistribution of this work might subject the party responsible for such unauthorized copying or redistribution to legal action by the owners of the aforementioned copyrights and trademarks.**

**Characters created: Lydia Bolton, Aislinn Bolton, Matthew Bolton, Ayla Bolton, Samuel Danforth, Alexander Danforth, Jayden Baylor, Poppy Baylor, Ryan Baylor copyright hollybaggins; 2008. All minor characters not recognised in the **_**High School Musical **_**films also owned by the author.**

**---**

**A/N: Yellow, all.**

**Thanks to Kate and the rest of those crazy Kuuipo****'****s over at FanForum, my muse was sparked heavily when they were idly discussing which stories should have a continuation for pure fluffy Troyella future family purposes. ****"****Broken****"**** was one of them. And so my muse struck and here is the first chapter of the result! **

**You do not have to read ****"****Broken****"**** to continue with this fiction, although the basics of the story may need to be known for reference purposes. This story is set twelve years after ****"****Broken****"**** finished and is a short story containing nothing but fluffyness!**

**Efron, I want my pen back or thou shalt hear from my lawyers!**

**Hudgens, you have silky soft skin. What the hell do you use?!**

**Enjoy y****'****all! Holly xx**

**Chapter One: Thank That Star**

There weren't many things in life that scared Lydia Bolton.

When she was young, she was convinced that a great big Lydia-eating bear was roaming in her bedroom everytime her light was switched off. And it usually took a big scream and her ever-dutiful father to rectify the situation. That was an exception.

When she was eleven years old, she officially made it her lifelong ambition to beat Jayden Baylor at basketball - one occasion which resulted in her falling over and badly (severely) grazing her knee. Her father had taken one look, and with a mischievous glint in his eye told her: _"__Oh, that looks terrible, baby. I__'__ll have to sort that out right now. Wait here while I run to the garage and get the saw__…"_

That, also, was an exception.

When she was fifteen years old, she got asked on a date by Wally Crawford in a secluded corridor at Sunhill High school.

She'd never run so fast out of a building in her life.

Well, except for the time she'd come home early from basketball practice and walked into her parents bedroom without knocking.

But she never liked to talk about that…

At sixteen years of age, she was going through the life-crisis of any other teenager on the planet. Except for the small _minor _detail that every teenager wouldn't accept that they were going through either the same or similar scenario, and that everybody else's lives were just _perfect. _

"Yeah, they're weird. But aren't all parents?"

Her nonchalant statement did nothing to ease Michael Stape's confidence. "Well, yeah, all parents are cuckoo, babe. But your parents aren't just _parents_, are they?"

Lydia scrunched up her nose. Still, his answer wouldn't faze her. Ever since the _hottest _guy _ever _at Sunhill High had asked her out on a date just a little over a month ago, Lydia had been stuck on cloud nine - not allowing anything or anyone to get her down. Her behaviour hadn't gone unnoticed by her parents, but they were mainly thankful her evil teenage hormones weren't making a daily appearance.

"What do you mean?" A frown accompanied her question. Maybe he meant it in the same way as Sharpay Evans had stated in all the years since she could remember. But then what would Michael Stape - the _hottest _guy _ever _at Sunhill High - know about her parent's relationship?

Michael scoffed. "_Please_!" He huffed. "Your dad is Troy Bolton. _Troy Bolton. _He's like… a god!"

Lydia folded her arms. "He's no different than anybody else." She huffed unconvincingly. "Okay, so he _thinks _he's being cool sometimes. And last week, he nearly set the kitchen on fire trying to make a lasagne. And he sings in the shower like _every _morning. But, yeah, all parents are weird like that, aren't they?"

"Your dad is my freaking _hero, _Lyd. I wouldn't care if he cross-dressed at weekends and called himself Sandy."

Lydia's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "I would."

"Plus," Michael leaned back casually against the large oak tree that was situated outside the main entrance at Sunhill High. "Your mom's hot."

"Say _what_?"

He chuckled at her horrified expression. "You heard. If only she was a teacher here… But I don't care what you say about your parents; I'm nervous as hell about meeting them."

The light Los Angeles breeze swept through her long chocolate tresses with ease. As calming and warm as the weather may have been, Lydia's insides were a complete contrast. From the moment she'd gone on a date with _the_ most popular guy in the Junior year, everything had been one blissful blur.

Everything.

Her three younger siblings had tried their hardest to annoy the hell out of her -- as is every younger sibling's duty in life -- but none of their on-going chants and whines had fazed her in the slightest. Everything had been like a big yellow meadow with fluffy bunny rabbits and tweeting birds and beautiful butterflies… herself and Michael Stape frolicking hand-in-hand in the midst of it all to clichéd and cheesy music, basking in their fairytale happiness and _oh so _togetherness…

Until he mentioned that they should be official… and that he should now meet her parents by way of expressing that official-ness.

It wasn't as though she was ashamed of her mom and dad… It was merely that she'd like Michael to meet them without the risk of having his nose pulled off his face and his ears ripped off. Her dad had always been overprotective of her; more so since the day she came home from kindergarten with a grazed knee claiming some boy had pushed her over in the playground. She could remember him vividly explaining to her that all boys sucked (except himself, of course, and occasionally Uncle Chad) and that they really did all have cooties and bad odour (except himself, of course. But especially Uncle Chad).

Michael was her first boyfriend - if 'boyfriend' was the appropriate term to go by. It had been a little over four weeks since he'd first taken her out to see a movie, three weeks since they shared their first kiss, and two and a half since girls had stopped and stared in envy as they walked hand-in-hand for the first time through the school hallways. Lydia had never really thought about the prospects of a boyfriend before; not really caring about the social standings and how it was "weird" to others that she was sixteen years of age, yet had never experienced her first kiss.

The cootie thing her own father had taught her had definitely stuck with her all these years.

But since Michael had sexily strolled up to her one afternoon after the girls basketball team finished their daily free period practice and asked her on a date, boy-cooties had been the very last thing on Lydia's mind. Everything since had just been so perfect, so surreal…

And _now _he wanted to meet her parents?

"Can't I meet yours first?" Lydia put on her infamous stare that she still hadn't realised could only melt her father's heart. "I mean… I honestly don't know if mine are available for like… the next six months. Dad will be going on tour with the Lakers at some point and mom's got enough on with teaching and then I'll get stuck with looking after Ash, Mattie and Ayla and everything will be so screwed up--"

"Babe." His palm softly touched her cheek, shutting her up effectively. "We have to do this sometime."

She could barely speak when he was looking at her and touching her like that. Michael Stape. The _most _popular guy at Sunhill High was with _her_ - the girl who took little or no care in her general appearance, who cared more about sport than shopping, who was rarely seen with the latest fashionable handbag rather than a basketball, who spent her after school time playing ball rather than worrying about fashion and make-up and boys. Well, boy. Single. One boy. This boy.

"But why now?" She managed to get out. "I've never done this before, Mike. The whole parent-meeting thing. I haven't even done the boyfriend thing before. Why does it have to be such a rush?"

"Better to get it all out of the way, isn't it?"

"Don't you want to get over your nerves first?"

Michael stepped closer to her and she felt his breath fanning her face. "I want to do this for you." Her heart melted. "It doesn't help that I'm _slightly _intimidated by your dad; I grew up with his posters all over my bedroom wall! He was the reason I ever wanted to start playing basketball in the first place." At this, Lydia smiled. He had been her inspiration too. "But I can put all of that aside and I promise I'll be on my most gentlemanly behaviour when I meet him. I think we should do this; we are going steady now, right?"

"Well, yeah--"

"Right?" He asked again, gently leaning down to kiss her lips softly.

Lydia Bolton was almost paralysed. So this is what it's like to be wanted by the most popular guy. Even though she was wearing nothing but some old shorts and a sweaty basketball jersey with her hair tied up in a messy ponytail, she suddenly felt like the hottest girl at the school. She always knew somewhere inside that she was destined to be with Michael Stape. That he would be the one to see and appreciate the real her.

"Right," she finally lamented, smiling widely and leaning into his hand.

"Besides." His arms wrapped tightly around her waist as he grinned in his triumph. "I'm sure you've already told them all the nice things about me - I bet they're dying to meet me just as much as I am them."

"Uh…" Lydia looked away guiltily, pulling out of his arms slightly. "About that…"

Michael's eyes narrowed. "You haven't told them about us?"

"Well…"

His sigh was heavy and his arms dropped away from her. "Lyd…"

"But I'll tell them tonight!" She grasped a hold of his forearms, almost desperately. "I'll tell them and then we can arrange for you to meet them."

"But now I'm even more nervous! I would have thought you'd at least be telling them about our dates - so much so, they'd be dying to meet me too."

"I will, I will," she promised, leaning up on her tip-toes to kiss him quickly. "I swear, tonight I'll tell them everything and be _extra _nice about you and by this time tomorrow, I'll be telling you all about how _they_ want to meet you. Okay?"

She bit her lip as Michael seemed to simmer the thought in his head, his face expressionless. She'd never wanted to kick herself as hard as she wanted to at that minute; already contemplating the thought that she'd already lost him before it could develop into something truly amazing.

After what seemed an eternity, he set his mouth into a thin smile and watched as she relaxed when he put his arms back around her. "Okay," he sighed softly, his smile widening. "Just make sure you tell your dad I'm really good at basketball."

"It's a done deal." She grinned; her stomach settling as he slowly swayed her from side to side.

She wanted to kiss him again. Badly. But as his face lowered towards hers, she heard footsteps from behind them and quickly made a mental note to brutally murder Jayden Baylor within the hour.

"Loser, let's move," he called nonchalantly as he strolled casually past them. He kept his focus away from the couple, but gestured to the boy with a short nod of the head. "Stape."

Michael narrowed his eyes and nodded his own head once as a form of acknowledgement to the senior basketball captain. "Baylor."

"_Baylor_." Lydia narrowed her eyes at his interruption. "Can't you just give me a few minutes here?"

"Hmm…" Jayden stopped in his tracks, a basketball tucked under his arm securely. "No. Not if you want a ride home."

"I'm kinda busy here."

"So become _un_busy," he smiled as he saw the familiar fire in her bright blue eyes. "Practice has been draining and I'm dying to chill out. So if you want a ride home, move your ass."

Lydia let out a loud growl of protest but that only served to make Jayden laugh as he walked towards the school car park. "I hate him," she muttered into Michael's shirt. "He really does pick his moments."

"The sooner he graduates and fucks off to college, the better." Michael snarled at Jayden's retreating back. "And as soon as he does, I'll be the senior captain of the Tiger's and I'll get twice as many trophies as he's got. Count on that."

"You really don't have to hate him, Mike. He's just being Jay. Believe me, if you knew his mom, you'd understand."

"I don't want to know _his _mom. From what I've heard, Hannibal Lector would make a less scary parent. Thank god you're not related to her."

"She's not _that _bad." She cuddled into him again.

"_Bolton!__"_Jayden yelled across the car park. Lydia rolled her eyes annoyingly and shot her boyfriend(?) an apologetic glance.

"Sorry. I've got to go."

"Yeah, sure."

"You'll call me later?" Her eyes were hopeful.

"I'm meeting the guys but I'll try. Remember the deal tonight."

She smiled, only half-reluctantly. "Promise."

"Bolton!"

"Ugh. I'm _coming!_" She yelled back before engaging in another eye roll for Michael's benefit. "I'll just run him over later." Suddenly a blush started to ignite on her cheeks as she anticipated her next move. "Kiss?"

Michael merely smiled before pressing one lone kiss on her mouth, lingering for just a second before pulling away and turning on his heel in the direction of where his car was parked. Lydia was almost immobilized for a few seconds as she watched him coolly stroll away from her, looking beyond sexy. If not for Jayden's incessant beeping of his car horn, she probably would have stood there looking like a lemon all day.

Jayden pulled his car up alongside where Lydia was standing, an annoyed look on his face. "I'm gonna stop being Mr. Nice Guy here, Bolton," he sighed loudly, then let out a chuckle as Lydia pulled a face at him. "Are you getting in or not?"

"I'm getting in." Pulling her gym bag up and over her shoulder, Lydia sprinted around the front of the car before placing herself in the passenger seat. "You know, you don't have to be an ass all the time."

"I kinda do," Jayden grinned as he pressed his foot on the accelerator and headed towards the Bolton residence. "I'm a senior and _like_," here, he over exaggeratedly heightened his pitch, "_totally _the most _popular guy _in school!"

Lydia smiled amusingly. "You're a dork."

"And Stape is some sort of god?" He let out a huff. "Seriously, Lyds. _Anyone _but him."

"There's nothing wrong with him. He's kind and he's funny _and _he's cute _and _he's only the hottest guy in the entire school."

"And you care about bullshit like that?" Jayden turned to look at her with an astonished look on his face.

Lydia shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, no," she replied. "But you can't say it doesn't help. There's loads of things I like about him - him being amazingly gorgeous and popular is just an added bonus. Plus, we _shock _people. Someone like me is so out of his league, but he still wants me. _Me_."

Jayden just shook his head hopelessly. "You know, I've never met the insecure side of Lydia Bolton before. It sucks."

"I'm not insecure. I'm just telling you how it is," she retorted.

"Okay. So right back at ya. He's scum and no good. Oh, and he hums in the shower. _And _he never uses deodorant after practice."

There was always that fire inside of her that only Jayden Baylor could drag out. He always had a way, right from them being young - right from the moment she was a half hour old and he'd looked at her in her crib and smacked her over the head as a gesture of welcome into the world. Their arguments had always been humourous - at least to their friends and parents. Fellow students idolized Jayden; girls glared in envy at Lydia whenever they were seen together although nothing romantic had ever occurred between them. Some just couldn't understand how they were so close yet engaged in some of the most fiery arguments known to mankind. One minute, people would worry that fists would fly; the next second, they'd be stood almost paralyzed as Lydia and Jayden carried on simply as if nothing had happened.

Their relationship was unique… strange, yet unique. They never thought of the other as a best friend, although they were closer than any friend could be. He was just Jayden, and she just Lydia. As simple as that.

"You're just being impossible." Lydia pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped an arm around them as she fiddled with the car radio. "He's already _that _serious about us, that he wants to meet mom and dad."

Jayden choked on his breath and Lydia sent him a smug look. "You serious?" His wide eyes darted to her briefly before focusing back on the road. "You're actually serious?"

She nodded her head. "Uh-huh. And it's so cute," she smiled. "He's nervous as hell."

"And he wants to be! I'm telling you, your dad will flip when he finds out you've been seeing this slimeball in secret. You remember the heart attack he almost had when you decided to be clever and ask him what it meant when the blue line appeared on the white stick?"

Lydia laughed at the memory. "The look on his face was so worth the weekend grounding!"

Jayden couldn't help but join in on her chuckles. "Still, that heart attack will be _nothing _compared to this."

"You don't know that. He'll love Mike! He plays basketball and he's charming and sweet. And he loves dad! Dad is one of his all time heroes."

Jayden smirked. "I think he loves your dad a little too much. Have you seen the poster he has of him in his locker?"

"He does not!"

"Yes, he does! And, okay, in his defence, he's not the only guy in the country to have a poster of him somewhere amongst his possessions. But he does fawn over it a lot… Sometimes he even strokes it "for luck" just before a game."

Lydia gave Jayden a hard punch in the bicep. "Shut up."

Jayden laughed. "You're too easy, loser! But honestly, I'd just keep an eye on exactly _how much _he loves your dad." His tone turned serious. "Or whether he likes the idea of dating _Troy Bolton__'__s _daughter rather than just dating Lydia."

Lydia tried to ignore him; his words now angering her beyond belief. She turned her face away from him, settling her deathly eyes out of the passenger window and trying to slow her breathing. Not even Jayden could disrupt her moment of paradise. She wouldn't let him. Michael Stape was dating _her_, he liked _her_… so much so, he was eager to make it official and meet her parents. That's all there was to it. Nothing but.

After a few moments of silence, Jayden pulled to a stop at the curb outside of the house Lydia had lived in all her life - a large, yet modest house situated in Toluca Lake, only two blocks from the Baylor residence and four away from the Danforth house. The three families had been closer than close long before Lydia had been born, and it showed with every exchange between them.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Jayden noticed the upset on her delicate features. "That didn't come out right."

"You're an asshole."

"Maybe, but believe it or not, I actually care about how scumbags like that treat girls. And he's one of the worst."

"He's been nothing but a gentleman to me."

Jayden sighed heavily. This was only going to escalate. "Look, I've got to get home. Mom and dad are going to this function thing to do with the restaurant tonight and I've got a tonne of stuff to do before I have to babysit Poppy and Ryan."

"Whatever."

He sighed again, hitting his hand against the steering wheel in frustration. "Don't get mad at me, okay? I haven't got the strength to deal with it right now. Stape pissed me off."

"_You__'__re _pissing _me _off!" Her eyes had turned to ice, the angry red tint in her cheeks contrasting perfectly, and her chocolate curls wild with her lack of care and commitment to its wellbeing. In all, she was beautiful. "He's my _boyfriend, _Jay. I've got enough pressure to deal with tonight and telling mom and dad about him… and even more just _thinking _about introducing him. I _need _them to like him."

"Why so much?" His annoyance was evident.

"Because I like him, you moron!" Her flame was bursting. "I really, really, really like him. And not just because he's popular and sexy… He just makes me feel different. A good different."

"You don't know if this good-different will last."

"It will if you get off my fucking back!"

"Well, excuse me for caring, Lyds!" His anger was reaching scorching point. "When he fucks you over and your dad gets done for murder, don't come fucking crying to me!"

In more than just a bad temper, Lydia threw open the car door and dragged her gym bag out lazily as she climbed out, slamming it shut before sticking her head through the open window. "Believe me, I won't!"

And then she stomped away towards her house; not offering a single look back. Jayden groaned loudly and cursed himself for losing control. His head fell back against the car seat hopelessly, his heart racing at one hundred miles an hour. He'd never met a girl that could get his adrenaline running like Lydia Bolton.

She was a loose canon, a bull in a china shop… One second she'd be the sweetest thing with that gorgeous twinkle in her eyes and the next she'd be red with fury… a desperate passion shooting out of her that he'd only ever witnessed himself dragging out of her. It was never a dangerous fire; it was just the norm between them.

Some found it humourous, some found it strange.

Jayden Baylor just found it ignited things within him he never thought possible to feel.

---

"…and then my decathlon competition is on the twenty-fourth and should we win - which we will - I'll need a new dress because Jasmine Phillips will be hosting a celebratory party and we've decided it should be a _dress occasion_."

Gabriella Bolton had to place her hand over her mouth to hide her amused smirk. "A _dress occasion_, huh?"

Aislinn Bolton narrowed her eyes at her mother's stance, surrounded by a mass of math and science-based textbooks. "Duh."

"Okay." Gabriella sat down at the table across from her thirteen year old daughter, humouring her. "What kind of dress?"

"Hmm…" Aislinn pretended to think. "A black one. With some frills on the skirt. And maybe some diamonds. Short--"

"Nah-uh." Gabriella waggled her finger at her. "How short are you thinking here?"

"Enough to make dad sweat before he orders me back upstairs to change?"

Gabriella laughed. "You're a devil!"

"I'm a teenager, mom." Aislinn rolled her eyes dramatically. "It's my job to keep you both on your toes."

"Sure it is." Gabriella stood up and walked into the adjoining kitchen, her eyes darkening upon seeing the sink full of unwashed pots that her husband _promised _he'd do before he left with Chad to take the kids to Sammy Danforth's baseball game where their own son, Matthew, was also playing. After spending the last seven hours at UCLA while her own children were at their respective schools, she had hoped that Troy - having the luxury of a day off work - would have at least kept the house tidy.

"Is a dress still on the cards?" Aislinn called out to her mother. When she heard no immediate response, she continued. "Just imagine the pride you'll feel when your favourite daughter wins and comes home with the _shiniest _cup _ever_ that'll make every brainiac at Sunhill Middle so jealous they'll turn _green. _You know you'll shed a tear… Dad will too. And you'll just beam and love me even more - if that's possible - and you _know _one or both of you will turn to me and say, _"__Ash, sweetheart, darling, our favourite person in the whole world__…__ let us buy you a really gorgeous dress for your _dress occasion _celebratory party__…"_I can see it now."

Gabriella let out a laugh as she walked back towards her daughter. "I think you've got an over active imagination, Ash. But we can discuss it nearer the time. Speaking of… this party?" She raised an eyebrow. "Where is it at? Who's supervising? And you were only joking when you said you wanted it so short you'd almost kill your father… weren't you?"

Aislinn had such a look of innocence on her features that Gabriella could almost see the halo sitting on top of her head. "Mom, we'll discuss it nearer the time." She waved her off and Gabriella shook her head with a chuckle.

Aislinn had certainly inherited Troy's sense of humour - she had to inherit something from him since Gabriella's looks dominated her along with the obvious brains and a love for learning. She was their freaky math girl, and she was proud. At thirteen, she'd already harboured ambitions to be a top lawyer and was excelling in all her classes. Her brains and ruthless ambition had caused the principal of Sunhill Middle School to call both Troy and Gabriella in for a meeting to discuss plans for Aislinn to skip grades and start at Sunhill High in the fall. Aislinn had declined the offer, preferring to stay with her friends and people her own age.

Gabriella completely understood her reasoning's. And so they didn't push her.

"_Ugh!__"_

The perfected art of the teenage growl could only come from Lydia Bolton.

As the front door slammed shut and Aislinn mouthed 'abort' to her, Gabriella let out a sigh and slowly walked towards the living room where Lydia would be no doubt pacing back and forth.

"Good practice, Lyddie?" She asked carefully as Lydia's worn out sneakers began to wear into the carpeted floor.

"I _hate _Jayden!"

Gabriella hid a smile and sat herself down in the armchair opposite where her eldest was standing. "Of course you do," she replied. "What did he do now?"

"He…" Lydia drifted off, realising what she was about to say. "He just pissed me off so--"

"Language."

"Sorry. He annoyed me greatly."

Gabriella sighed softly. If she had a dollar for every conversation she'd had with Lydia about Jayden Baylor… "Didn't he just give you a ride home?"

"Yeah. But I should have walked. Or got the bus. You don't get abused that way." Folding her arms tightly over her chest, Lydia let out another groan before flopping back lazily on the couch. "I'm never speaking to him ever again, you know. Never."

"Sure."

"No, I mean it. Big time. Seriously. Completely. He's crossed the line now."

"Really?" Gabriella raised an eyebrow. "More than the time he bit the heads off all your Barbie dolls?"

The tomboy inside of her scowled. "I didn't ever have Barbie dolls."

Gabriella smiled. "You so did."

"And we agreed to never bring that up again," Lydia seethed through gritted teeth. "Do you want me to put myself up for adoption?"

Gabriella suddenly put on her best serious face. "Oh, no. Definitely not. So, come on, tell me, what did Jay do now?"

Lydia looked at her mother through lowered lashes, suddenly becoming nervous at where this story was heading. She wasn't so nervous about telling her mom about Mike… more so about her dad and how his ever overprotective self would respond to her dating. Still, she could never be certain about how Gabriella would respond; whether she'd think the same as Jayden and forbid her from seeing Mike again…

But she knew that was unfathomable. Her parents had done nothing but keep her happy her whole sixteen years and she happily shared a bond, a closeness, that she knew was sometimes a rarity in some families. Her brother and two sisters were often pains in the asses, but they shared their moments where they were completely protective and admirable of one another. She knew deep down that her family would never try and make choices for her life but her need for them to like Mike was adding pressure that was too unnecessary.

"He was…" She drifted off before sitting up straight and darting her eyes quickly around the room. "Where's dad?"

Gabriella leaned forward in her chair, now intrigued at how her daughter's behaviour had suddenly changed. "He and Chad took Alex and Ayla to Sammy and Mattie's baseball game. Why?"

Lydia looked down at her lap. She'd always been able to talk to her dad and felt guilty that she was desperate to hide something so important… for now. Even Gabriella sensed her discomfort and walked across the room to sit beside her on the couch. "It's nothing, really. Well, it's something. And I don't know how dad's going to react and he might hate the idea but I really need to tell you this tonight. And Jayden piss-- uh… _annoyed _me greatly when he started freaking me out about telling you…"

Gabriella's face was unreadable. There were so many thoughts that would go through a parent's mind upon hearing something so subjective as that. "Wait, Lyds… what are you…? I mean, uh… what are you trying to tell me here?"

"I…met someone…" She bit her lip but relaxed somewhat when she saw her mother breathe a large sigh of relief. "Well, not met per-say. I already knew him. He's called Mike Stape and he's in my year at school and he's, like, the most popular guy there."

Gabriella smiled softly; beaming almost. Oh, how she remembered that feeling. "Is that all?" She asked gently and smiled wider when Lydia shrugged.

"We're sorta dating now…"

"Really?" Gabriella's smile turned into a grin. "What's he like?"

Her calm attitude finally soothed Lydia's nerves. "He's so gorgeous, mom. And he's on the basketball team and is aiming for captaincy next season. Oh, and he's really charming and sweet. And funny too."

"What's his name?"

"Mike." Lydia smiled in spite of herself, picturing the big meadow and tweeting birds again. "And he chose _me_. Out of every girl in the year… Over all those gorgeous cheerleaders and those smart girls… He asked _me _out. Right there in the middle of the hallway. Can you believe it?"

Gabriella let out a laugh. "You know I can! Honey, I was in the same position as you at your age; you know that. Your dad was high school royalty and I was this evil witch who came out of nowhere, bewitched him and stole him from the female population! They all hated me. But out of everyone, he chose _me_. Of course I can believe he chose you. Why wouldn't he?"

"No guy ever looked twice at me before," Lydia replied quietly. "And I never really cared before. I always thought Mike was hot, I just never thought it would actually get somewhere, you know? They all want their flawless and popular cheerleaders… or the girls who take care in their appearance and get wasted at all of these house parties and make out with random guys. All I wanted to do was play ball, and no guy ever really understood that before. Well," she paused with a small smile. "Except Jay, maybe."

"Of course except Jayden; and apparently this Mike too."

"Yeah." Lydia's lips twitched into a blissful smile. Her posture finally relaxed and her smile widened, and Gabriella could only be reminded of when she was sixteen years old and experiencing her first crush. A few brief moments of silence occurred before her smile faltered slightly and she raised her eyes back to her mother. "Do you think dad will freak?"

Gabriella let out a small and sympathetic sigh. "I think that's kind of an unwritten rule where fathers are concerned."

"Yeah, but will _dad _freak? Mike wants to meet you guys as soon as possible… Mom, I'll be introducing him to my _boyfriend_."

Gabriella's eyes widened upon realising the severity of the situation. "Hell yeah. Your dad's gonna have a nervous breakdown."

"Holy sh-- shackles." Lydia fell backwards again, covering her face with her hands desperately. "Mom, this _has _to go well."

Her mother merely gazed at her lovingly, knowing how hard this was going to be. She knew Troy would automatically hate this Mike with a passion, even more than he hated Will Fanthorpe when the literature professor hit on her not long after she started at UCLA. He'd always say his girls were too good for any guy, even though Gabriella suspected he never meant it; that he would be happy as long as his children were happy.

But Lydia's first boyfriend was bound to lead to bad places were Troy was concerned.

"Look, I'll talk to him, okay?" Gabriella reached out to stroke Lydia's hand affectionately. "I'll talk to him later on tonight and ease his mind about the whole thing whilst throwing in guidelines here and there for the meeting. It'll be fine?"

Lydia pulled her hands down tiredly. "You really think so?"

She smiled. "I know so. He'll be his usual self about it when I first mention it but you know I'll get around him somehow."

Her daughter smiled again. "You always do. It has to work out, mom. I mean, Mike loves dad. He's his hero. If dad hated Mike just because we like each other…" She drifted off. "Well, to say it would majorly suck would be an understatement."

Gabriella contemplated her next question. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask, but the nagging sensation in her mind telling her her question would only upset her daughter held her back from speaking her new worry. She quickly put it down to the overreacting parental worries; that Lydia knew what she was doing and was old enough to distinguish things that looked and sounded right and things that were wrong. She didn't want to assume the worst - rather she wanted to bask in her daughters new happiness and share it with her.

She could hear her husbands chants and whoops before he even entered the front door. Along with Chad Danforth's very own cheers of victory, she could also hear that of her eleven year old son and six year old daughter, accompanied by Sammy Danforth's champion-based song.

"I guess they won," Lydia commented as she turned to lie down horizontally on the couch. Aislinn bounded into the room excitedly as the front door slammed shut and Troy - with Sammy thrown over one shoulder, and Matthew the other - and Chad holding Ayla on his hip, who sported an oversized baseball cap and a poorly made foam finger.

"Do I smell victory?" Aislinn clapped her hands together as her father lowered her brother and Sammy to the ground. "Did Sammy D do us proud?" She ruffled the twelve year olds hair and Sammy recoiled from her.

"Of course I did proud!" Sammy retorted, straightening the cap that was slowly slipping off his steadily growing afro hairstyle. "Mattie wasn't so bad either!"

"Mattie, you hit a homerun?!" Gabriella leapt off the couch and towards the miniature version of her husband.

Matthew Bolton wore a smug expression as he offered Troy a high-five. "More like two!"

"Two?!"

"He and Sammy were on _fire_!" Chad exclaimed, patting his boy on the head. "The crowd were chanting for them both by the end and it wasn't even a competitive game!"

"Could we have been more proud, man?" Troy laughed and placed his arm around Chad's shoulders before taking Ayla from him. "You still hungry, baby?" He asked his youngest; chuckling when she nodded her head with wide puppy eyes. "She's already had a hotdog." Troy directed to Gabriella. "She's been complaining her tummy's empty ever since she finished it."

"A hotdog before dinner?" Gabriella shot him a reprimanding glare. "You know she can eat like a horse."

"It wasn't a big hotdog," Ayla reasoned, idly waving her foam finger around in the air. "And Mattie had one too."

"You had hotdogs without _me_?" Aislinn's jaw dropped. "With extra mustard?"

Troy shot her a guilty look.

"_Dad! _That's the ultimate betrayal!"

"I was thinking of you the entire time…"

"So not talking to you ever now."

Troy poked his tongue out at her. "Drama queen."

"Golden oldie."

"I'm in my prime!" Troy retorted, trying to hold back his laughter at the look of victory plastered on Aislinn's face. When he caught sight of Lydia lying out on the couch chuckling at the scene unfolding before her, Troy quickly placed Ayla on the floor and strolled over to his eldest, still kitted out in her Tigers basketball practice gear. "Lyddie, Lyddie, Lyddie; good practice?"

"Meh." Lydia shot a brief look to her mother. "It was the same as always."

Troy opened his mouth to respond, but caught the somewhat annoyed glance his wife of eighteen years was throwing him. "What?" He was trying his hardest to remember something he would have done to make her mad.

"Uh oh…" Chad grinned at the sight before him. "I think me and Sammy better make tracks…"

"No, seriously." Troy looked worried now. "What did I do?"

"Not get your favourite daughter a hotdog?" Aislinn supplied, folding her arms indignantly. "I can't _believe _you'd do that to me! And you should know better!" She pointed her finger in Chad's direction.

"Woah! Woah!" Chad raised his hands defensively in the air. "I was forced against my will, Ash. You know I'd never consume a hotdog without you by my side."

"Gabs, you're scaring me here…" Troy edged closer towards her tentatively.

"Something you forgot to do on our luxurious day off, Mr. Bolton?" Her tone was hard.

"Well, Sammy," Chad rubbed his hands together. "You know what they say: if Troy's ever in trouble… it's best to be as far away as humanly possible…"

"Actually, I quite enjoy it when dad's in trouble," Aislinn commented, taking a seat beside her elder sister to get a better view.

"Thanks, Ash," Troy said pointedly before staring back at his wife. She was still as beautiful as she was when she was sixteen when they'd first met. He knew that spark in her eye - the spark that said, _yes, you__'__ve managed to piss me off again but I can__'__t help but damn love for it. _It was a spark he knew he couldn't play with without getting away with it - a spark that even his children had learnt to read at a young age. "Gabs, could you just tell me? I know you're wanting me to get the answer right away but I'm male and I'm stupid and I never remember what it is I'm supposed to remember 'cause I have this illness -- oh, god; the dishes!" His head whipped around sharply to Chad.

"Holy crap. The dishes."

"Dude!" Troy slapped his friend's bicep. "We were supposed to do the dishes!"

Gabriella cleared her throat with a small smile. Troy and Chad wore similar shocked expressions - wide eyes, mouths agape; a sudden look of horror and realisation dawning upon them. Amused at the picture, she spoke up. "Um, we?"

"We have this thing…" Chad started with a sigh. "And it's not a big thing but it's still a thing. And we were going to do the dishes before we took the kids to the game but then the match on the xBox--"

Gabriella's eyes bulged. "You went on the xBox?"

"No!" Troy replied quickly, shooting Chad a death glare. "We had to uh…"

"Dad," Aislinn grinned. "You know you can't lie to mom."

Troy dropped his hand, defeated. "Sorry," he offered feebly.

"We did make an extra effort to do them," Chad added. "We just uh…"

"I'm sorry. I can't get over this 'we' thing." Gabriella couldn't help but smile at the two. "I've had one of the worst days in the world at work today and my only reassuring thought was that my husband was home and that he'd take care of the basic cleaning so when I did get home, I wouldn't have to worry about insignificant chores. But I get home, I find the _one thing _I asked him to do isn't done amongst the obvious things that need doing… and all I get is a poor excuse and my husband and his best friend apologising. Why the hell are _you_ sorry, Chad?!"

"We have this thing…"

"Like a romantic one?" Lydia put in.

Chad ignored her. "He washes, I dry."

"Or sometimes _I__'__ll _dry and he washes," Troy added. "Sometimes we alternate halfway through just so its fair. And when Taylor leaves Chad a mountain of things to do…"

"We share those too."

Gabriella put a hand up to her mouth, trying to stifle her laughs. "Oh my god, you two are so cute!"

"Like an old married couple," Aislinn commented. "But weirder."

Troy turned a delicate shade of pink and Chad watched his shoes as the scuffled on the spot in embarrassment. "It's just this thing we've always had…"

"I thought you would have grown out of it by now! Or, at least, _do _what I so kindly asked you to do this morning."

"It's not his fault, mom," Aislinn winked cheekily to her father. "It's his mind. He's getting old. It's not a nice thing losing your memory."

Troy's jaw dropped. "Ash! Who's side are you on here?!"

"After the unfortunate hotdog incident, I had to re-evaluate my priorities."

Gabriella couldn't keep her laughter inside after Troy looked at his daughter speechless as everyone chuckled around him. "She's your influence, Troy. I don't why your so shocked everytime she opens her mouth anymore." He didn't respond, just pointed at his daughter accusingly as she looked proud at her performance.

"I'm really getting old?!" He squeaked.

Gabriella rolled her eyes heavenwards before taking pity on her forever gorgeous husband; strolling up to him and lazily wrapping her arms around his waist. Eighteen years they'd been married; twenty-two spent as a couple… and yet it still didn't seem long enough. Four - but five - children later, all they looked forward to now was another twenty-two years plus forever in one another's lives. The love between them only growing with each passing day; if it were even possible.

"Come on, darling husband of mine." They ignored the vomiting sounds coming from Chad, Lydia and Aislinn. "You get those dishes done now and we won't mention your and Chad's "thing" to anybody else. It'll be our little secret."

Troy smiled and tapped her nose with his own. "I'm holding you to that, Mrs. Bolton."

Gabriella's eyes sparkled. "Promise?" She asked in a hushed tone - doing what they usually do and block out the entire world with their own secret magical powers. Troy's smile widened and he kissed her forehead affectionately before looking over at his children. Lydia and Aislinn had taken to hiding behind pillows to display their disgust at their parents "canoodling" whilst Matthew and Ayla were somewhat distracted by Sammy's baseball he'd taken from the game. Chad was meanwhile pretending to be fascinated by the ceiling, which only served to make them laugh.

Troy wound his arms around Gabriella's waist and swayed her in his grasp. "Danforth. You wash, I'll dry?"

Chad pulled a face. "Hell no, man. We gotta go. I gotta pick Alex up from nursery before Tay gets home and I got a whole lot of my own chores to do."

"Mom, are all guys under the thumb?" Aislinn enquired.

Gabriella grinned at her daughter. "Of course they are, Ash." She pressed a kiss on Troy's chin. "They'd be extinct by now if they weren't." Troy merely raised a questioning eyebrow before Gabriella wiggled out of his arms and nudged him gently towards the kitchen, slapping his butt as he moved past her. "I want them so clean, they shine!" She called after him with a laugh.

"Yes, madam," Troy joked, waving her off as he made his way into the kitchen.

"I'll supervise." Aislinn offered, although every person in the room knew it wasn't for their own benefit - more like an opportunity to cause trouble. "I would do that for you, mom. Never forget that." Aislinn blinked innocently as she looked up at her mother. "Particularly when it comes up to my _dress occasion_…"

"You just try that tactic with your father and see where it gets you."

Aislinn looked as though she'd gracefully accepted the challenge. "Well, I will need something to do while I supervise him…" And she jogged quickly into the kitchen after her father.

Gabriella shook her head with a smile and caught Lydia's somewhat desperate gaze. She could read her children's minds; she'd always been able to. And she knew now this step that her daughter required her, as a parent, to take would only mean the world to her. She had to prepare Troy without him becoming Super Overprotective Father about everything.

Gabriella merely nodded at her in response and Lydia smiled slightly.

There weren't many things in life that scared Lydia Bolton.

Introducing her first boyfriend to her parents was an exception.


	2. Pancakes

**Chapter Two: Pancakes**

When he was seventeen years old, Troy Bolton decided that he'd rather die than turn forty.

Now, at forty-two - a husband of eighteen years and four children later - he still felt like the energetic teenager who loved nothing better than to cause mischief, to live on basketball and live for his girlfriend.

He couldn't have been any more happy with how his life had turned out. Nearly two decades of marriage and he was still falling more and more in love with Gabriella - the woman he'd considered his soulmate since he was sixteen, the woman he never thought he deserved, who was so out of his league… yet she was the same woman who professed her own love for him everyday, standing by her vows, and spending every moment making him more happy than he could have imagined.

He had retired from playing professional basketball with the LA Lakers when he was thirty-nine after a strong and historic thirteen years as part of the team. He'd done his father proud; a notion that he'd never forget. He was still known as 'Hoops Dude' even after all these years. But what most stood out in his career was each and every game he played where his wife and children were sat watching in the first row, cheering him on.

As of now, Troy was working as a personal trainer to the team, and sometimes assistant coach with the mindset of taking over the main job once the current coach retired. He had been pencilled in for the job for years, even before he retired, by the press and hardcore fans. Chad had sadly retired at thirty-two after a knee injury ended his dream. But he was never too sad; he'd been offered the trainer job as soon as he'd left and was welcomed with a standing ovation from the arena the first time he'd stepped onto the court as the team's physio, which had left him quite emotional at the time.

Troy was always astonished at how quickly Gabriella had taken to his beloved sport after they first started dating - she'd officially been bitten by the basketball bug and it had inevitably been passed down to their children.

Lydia had expressed her love for it from an early age. And nothing had made Troy feel so proud and so emotional when she first picked up a basketball and attempted, quite badly, to shoot a net that was six feet taller than she was. She'd grown up a tomboy - a basketball fanatic who thought of her father as her hero. She'd attended every game of his she could, getting star-struck at his famous team-mates and wearing her own Bolton jersey.

She'd had a hard time at her elementary and her middle school when there had been no girls team to join and play with - her own dreams of playing professional tainted when even after some furious student council protests, she still hadn't managed to achieve what she wanted. It wasn't until she'd started at Sunhill High that she finally became Point Guard for the Sunhill Tigers Girls Squad.

Lydia was his angel. Though not their first-born, Troy thought of her as his angel. After he and Gabriella had suffered the physical and emotional trauma after their first child, Jack, was born sleeping all those years ago, things had looked bleak and future children hadn't seemed a possibility. When Gabriella fell pregnant again, they'd never felt more on edge, more weary and frightened at the prospect of a repeat of their heartbreak. But as soon as Lydia came into the world, ever fear left and was replaced by unconditional love. It was as though she was the final piece of the puzzle that saved them.

Aislinn was his comedic genius. It seemed the only thing she'd inherited from him were his eyes and his sense of humour and love for mischief. She never failed to bring a smile to his face every single day. She was beyond hilarious and so intelligent that Gabriella often felt she was put to shame. She also never failed to bring Jack Bolton to his knees in uncontrollable laughter - from her witty comments, to her insane ideas about what she'd do when - not if, _when _- she became president of the United States, and how she'd affectionately make her dad Vice-President, purely because she thought he was the most amazing guy in the whole world.

Matthew was his star. His Little Dude. And he looked so much like Jack did when he was born that - although it brought back painful memories - Troy and Gabriella had only seen it as a positive. It was as though they were looking at Jack through Matthew, now knowing - or having at least some inclination - of what their baby boy would have looked like. But Matthew had his own uniqueness. He was the spitting image of his father, and although he complained that he hated having three sisters, he was awfully close to them - especially Aislinn, who'd appointed herself his protector from the moment he was born.

Though he'd adopted the obvious love for basketball, Mattie's main passion was baseball… and he had a natural talent for it. He was eleven years old and Troy could already envision him playing pro. He was also the official 'ladies man' of his year - something that was both hysterical and gave Troy pride. His legacy had indeed continued.

Ayla was his munchkin. Adorable in each and every way, but so incredibly shy. She was often attached to her parents like glue - particularly around people she didn't know. Gabriella often worried about her - about how her reserved and timid nature had prevented her from making any friends at kindergarten. She did make the effort now and then to sit with Sharpay and Zeke Baylor's ten year old twins, Poppy and Ryan, but at their age, it was natural for them to think hanging around with a six year old was uncool. Alexander Danforth was only five, and again, Ayla was at that age where she thought the only boy in the entire world who didn't have cooties was her father.

Troy often tried to ease Gabriella's worries; tell her that Ayla was going through a phase and would easily grow out of it and would be making so many friends, she'd lose count. His own insecurities about her was diminished by his adoration and love for his youngest. She was like a delicate doll just bursting to come into her own.

It was late when Troy finally made it home that night. Exhausted and only wanting to fall into bed, he couldn't help but walk up the stairs and wander down the darkened hallway, poking his head into each of his children's rooms and smiling to himself upon seeing they were all fast asleep and dreaming.

He'd never get over that feeling - the feeling of rapture and unconditional love; a constant need to protect and for them to know he'd always keep them safe. He could never go to sleep without making sure they were all secure in their bedrooms, all snuggled up warm and sleeping contentedly.

Finally making his way into the bedroom he shared with his wife, Troy smiled when he saw her propped up in their bed, fast asleep but surrounded by a multitude of paperwork - her features highlighted by the dim light of her bedside lamp. She was always the same Gabriella; the same girl who never understood what too much work meant and when to stop. He wanted to laugh at her posture - a red marking pen still sitting in her loose grasp.

She'd been a full time math and chemistry professor at UCLA for the last four years - straight after her maternity leave ended after giving birth to Ayla. Her career had been through its ups and downs - baring four children meant that for the last seventeen years, her work life had been put on hold… only returning for part time work over the years so she could put her family first. Everything had to have been at a constant, and when Ayla turned two, she decided she wanted to do the job she'd dreamed of doing and taught aspiring and intelligent young people everything she knew in the world of math and science.

Troy braced his hands on the bed slowly, as to not disturb her as he brushed his nose against her forehead, smelling her hair and pressing a kiss into her locks. She shifted slightly in her sleep causing her paperwork to slip and Troy to reach out and catch it before it all fell to the ground. Setting it on the bedside table just in front of their framed photograph of Jack, he chuckled when his wife gently stirred, murmuring something indecipherable. He could successfully guess it had something to do with academics. He loved how her subconscious mind worked.

As he began to undress whilst trying to walk around to his side of the bed, Gabriella's eyes fluttered open, taking only a few seconds to adjust to the dim lighting. She was almost disorientated - her last conscious memory being marking yet another paper - and was confused by the time of night and seeing Troy sitting on the edge of the bed.

"What time is it?" Her voice was groggy as she turned her head to look for the papers that had been on her lap.

Troy turned around upon hearing her voice, and smiled at her sleepy state. "Eleven-thirty," he responded in a low voice. "Sorry I'm late."

Gabriella just groaned and itched closer to him on the bed. Troy responded by sinking into the covers and lifting them up so she could snuggle up at his side; his arm coming around her waist to press her against him as she kissed the flesh of skin on his chest that was most accessible to her. "Disaster diverted?"

Troy let out a tired chuckle and closed his eyes. "Eventually. You know Sharpay. Anything that's meant to go smoothly never actually ends up going smoothly."

Gabriella smiled sleepily. "I'm so glad we decided not to go to that function tonight. I'm way too tired to handle Sharpay in a serious situation. I think tonight would have killed me."

"Those last two hours nearly killed me! Zeke was panicking, Sharpay was ranting… and the guests were all expecting some sort of murder to take place. Then I told Zeke he can officially discount me as a friend from now on. Everytime there's some freaking emergency with those two, they always call us. Why?!"

"Because you can fix it."

"I'm recently starting to think of the appeals of being able to _un_fix things."

There was a brief moment of silence. Both eyes were shut but neither made any attempt to move and switch off the light. Troy ran his fingers delicately up and down Gabriella's arm; their breaths even and slowly slipping into slumber.

"Hey, Troy?"

"Mmm?"

He felt the bed shift with her movements as she propped herself up on her forearm to look at his face. "I kinda had to tell you something tonight. You know, before Zeke called?"

Troy cracked one eye open to look at his wife curiously. She seemed on edge, tentative… her features said it all. "Okay…"

Gabriella lowered her head, her eyes glued to his naked chest as she swirled her fingertip around his skin, gently forming invisible patterns. "You have to promise me you won't freak out, okay?" Her head lifted back to his and a small smile graced her lips as his other eye popped open.

"Can't promise anything until you tell me."

"Troy." Her voice was reprimanding. "All I'm asking is that you don't start over-reacting and proceed in waking up the entire household before we actually have a conversation about it."

"About what?" Troy moved to sit up against the pillows but was held back by Gabriella's stare. "Okay, okay, I promise. About what?"

His impatience always made her laugh. "I was talking to Lydia earlier, just before you came home with Chad and the kids. She was a little upset, but I guess more nervous about something - something which I managed to get out of her just before you came home."

"Which was?" Troy raised a questioning brow.

Gabriella took a breath before speaking. "She's started seeing this guy at school." She ignored Troy's automatic look of shock. "And she really likes him. I didn't get much more out of her than that, but I do know how nervous she was in telling me… and especially you."

Troy sat up, his mouth opening to speak but nothing emerging. If the situation wasn't so important to her eldest child, Gabriella would have laughed at the look on her husband's face. Memories of him bouncing a baby Lydia on his knee whilst he declared he'd always be her favourite guy clouded her mind and she knew that in his mind, all that was slowly slipping away.

"Who is he?"

"He's called Mike. She's really taken with him too. He's on the basketball team in her year at school. And apparently you're his hero."

"Mike." Troy tested the name out. "No," he concluded, shaking his head. "Nope. No go."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Troy, you can't make a judgement based on his name!"

"Gabs, I have a fatherly _feeling_."

"A fatherly feeling?" Her eyebrows show up to the top of her head. "And that is…"

"A feeling felt by only a father at a time when his child is involved in something which is a definite no-no." He ran his hand through his matted hair. "Did she say how long she'd been seeing him? Are they together? What's the deal?"

"She didn't say. And does it really matter? What you should be focusing on is the fact that our daughter has finally found someone she likes and that he likes her too."

"Finally? What do you mean, finally? I thought we agreed on _never_."

"We? We didn't agree. _You _agreed on never."

"So did Lyddie."

"Lyddie was five at the time."

"She pinkie promised." Troy sank back onto the bed in a sulk.

Gabriella scooted over to get closer to him, determined to put him in the right frame of mind. This was exactly what Lydia was worried about. She'd always shared a close bond with her parents, and for them to not be in the same place as her when something as big as this deal was for her would destroy her.

"She really likes him, Troy. She's so excited about this relationship - or whatever she classes it as at this moment in time. She just beamed… Apparently he's the most popular guy in her year, and she's so smitten that he chose her over any other girl."

"Why the hell wouldn't he?" Troy's face turned sour. "She's beautiful. It's not that much of a surprise he'd like her."

"But it is to _Lydia_, Troy. You know how she's always been the tomboy - never caring about other boys or worrying about fashion and make-up. And now the guy every girl gushes over has picked her out of the entire bunch. She has insecurities, every girl does. And I know how she feels." Here, she wound her arms around her husband's waist and rested her cheek against his shoulder. "I never ever thought you'd look twice at me. As far as social standing was at high school, you were everything and I was nothing. Lydia feels the same way about this Mike. I _know _what she's feeling right now; I _remember _what she's feeling right now. But above all that social standing crap… I actually got the feeling that she genuinely likes him."

Troy just shook his head solemnly. The day he'd feared since she was born was finally upon him, and he didn't know how to take it. "It's not about that, Gabi. She'll get hurt one way or another."

"You can't be certain this guy will hurt her. You've not even met him yet."

"People always get hurt." He turned to look at her. "I mean, I hit the jackpot when I met you. But before you, I got hurt - I was cheated on, I was lied to… all by girls who I thought actually liked me back and at least respected me enough to stay loyal. Yeah, I wasn't serious about anyone until I met you but it still hurt me. It hurt me so much I used to sit at home and think for reasons of why you'd ever want to be with me. To be honest, it's still surreal to me that we're sat here now having this conversation, all these years later. But all these feelings stem from those bitches who thought it would be fun to screw around with me; they showed me just how easy it was to hurt someone."

"Troy…" Gabriella let out a soft sigh, placing her hand on his arm comfortably and pressing a kiss to his shoulder. "I went through it too, you know. Everybody has or will. You might have been my first boyfriend but that doesn't mean I wasn't hurt by people before I met you. Everybody goes through that same hurt - it's one of those horrible facts of life. We can't protect our kids from it no matter how hard we try."

Troy shook his head again. "I don't wanna give this guy the opportunity."

"Baby." Gabriella wanted to melt inside at how protective he was acting, and even though her mind was set similar to his, realistically, she knew that she had to make him see sense. "It'll hurt Lydia if we don't try. He could be the best thing that ever happened to her or he could be a complete asshole… but we've got to let Lydia discover these things out for herself. We only learn from our mistakes and we can't keep her cooped up in some invisible cage her entire life. I don't want to give any guy or girl the opportunity to hurt my children… but they have to stand on their own two feet to discover the bad one's from the good."

Troy's face softened, only slightly, as he leaned his head down to place a kiss on her temple. "When you get all smart and say things like that, you make my stubbornness want to go away. But I'm not happy with this, Gabi. I know it's a part of life and blah blah blah, but she's still our baby girl, you know? Frankly, I think she's still too young for this."

"I was sixteen when I met you!"

"That was different."

"How so?"

"Because I know me. And me would never hurt you. Me fell for you right away and was prepared to change the world for you - or, well, you know, the school at that time. I don't know this Mike guy."

"Which is why you meet him and you try for Lyddie's sake. And not filled with all this negativity either. You go in with a positive mind and an outlook to like him… whilst still maintaining that wariness in case our baby girl does come home one day in floods of tears and a broken heart. Because, _then _and only then do we relish in the opportunity to be there for her and pick up the pieces. That's all we can do. There's something in this guy that she likes and we have to respect her judge of character."

Troy Bolton was a stubborn soul, and his wife knew it all too well.

"Troy…" Gabriella half-smiled.

"What?"

She batted her eyelashes. "Please?"

Troy looked at her then quickly ripped his eyes away before he could fall under her spell. He knew she was right, he knew she was speaking logically. Still, he'd neither agree nor disagree, keeping in his own happy medium. Instead of answering, he wrapped his arms back around her body and pulled her back with him into the sheets, covering them up and snuggling before he reached over and switched off the lamp, resulting in darkness.

"Troy?"

"Shh, baby. Sleeping."

"No you're not."

Troy remained silent, kissing her temple softly and lingering there.

"I'll tell Lydia tomorrow that you're perfectly okay with meeting her boyfriend. And that we can invite him to the barbeque next week when your parents come over to stay for the weekend."

Troy closed his eyes and felt Gabriella's body shake with soft giggles in the dark. He wiggled his fingertips in her hair to show her he could feel her silent laughter, and that he wasn't amused, but it only made her more giddy in his arms.

"I'll take your silence as a fully committing yes."

She had to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter as a growl escaped her husband's throat.

"Go to sleep, Bolton."

---

Lydia was on edge early that next morning. The previous evening had given her uncontrollable flutters in her stomach just imagining what her dad would say once he found out about Mike. Sharpay and Zeke Baylor had managed to unknowingly buy her time when they called Troy in an emergency when their 'special guest' had failed to turn up at Zeke's restaurant function and Troy was - according to Sharpay - a last resort.

She had never been that much of a basketball fan.

Lydia had an inkling her mom would have spoken to him after he returned home and her nerves were aflutter. And her two younger sisters weren't exactly helping her cause.

"I'm hungry," Ayla whined, pulling herself up to sit beside her. "I want pancakes."

"There are no pancakes," Aislinn replied from opposite the breakfast bar, her head in a Jane Austen novel and a bowl of cheerio's sitting in front of her. "Mattie ate all the pancakes yesterday."

"We should go to the store and buy more."

Lydia rolled her eyes. "We can't, Ayla. We need to get ready for school."

The youngest Bolton pouted and folded her arms indignantly. "I hate kindergarten."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do. There's too many boys."

Aislinn lowered her book with a devilish stare. "You'll realise, young Ayla, that _that _is not a bad thing when you're a big girl."

Lydia narrowed her eyes at the girl across the bar. "Don't encourage her, Ash."

"Please," Aislinn placed her book on the countertop and took a spoonful of cereal. "Like you're one to talk. You think I didn't hear you and mom talking last night? Dad's gonna flip!"

"I'm glad you find it funny, Ash." Lydia deadpanned. "Really."

"I do, actually. So, come on, who is he? Is he hot?"

"Very, as a matter of fact. Most popular guy in our year." Lydia couldn't help but feel smug. Even though she knew her sister would never feel any bout of jealousy towards her; Aislinn was popular amongst the boys at her middle school but enjoyed "making them work" and never allowed herself to succumb to any of their charms. Her behaviour both frightened and impressed Troy, though he'd never admit it. He'd simply nod along without a word as Gabriella would chuckle silently beside him.

"Wow." Aislinn pretended to be impressed. "He must be a _fantastic _guy! You know all the popular guys at my school are all jerks?"

"So?"

"_So_ I'd be more impressed if he was a nice guy, perhaps? Easy on the eyes, knows a thing or two outside of sport?"

"He is a nice guy, Ash. He's not like the other jerks at school. He's not shallow, he's not a jock and he respects me. It wouldn't kill you to actually be nice and lose the sarcasm once in a while."

Aislinn took another spoonful of cheerio's and smiled a big smile at her sister in response. Sometimes her behaviour really irritated Lydia to the point where she wondered why her parents ever thought having another child would be a good thing.

"I'll decide after I meet him, thank you very much."

Lydia's eyes bulged and her mouth gaped open wide. "I don't think so somehow!"

"I do. Mom and dad get to meet him; why not the rest of us?"

"Because I don't want to send him to rehab for manic depression on the first day he comes here! It's gonna be bad enough when dad threatens to kill him with a steamroller and then bury his flattened body under the floorboards… but meeting you and Mattie too? Hell no!"

"I'm nice," Ayla stated.

Lydia's face softened as she turned to look at her. "You are, sweetie. I don't mean you. You want some breakfast?"

Ayla nodded quickly. "Pancakes, please."

"There are no pancakes."

"I only eat pancakes," Ayla huffed. "With extra syrup."

Lydia got up out of her chair and proceeded in pulling her curls into a messy ponytail. She quickly glanced down at her figure, covered by a pair of dark blue boot cut jeans and a light blue sweater - an outfit that was very rarely seen on her form. Her usual attire of basketball jerseys and baggy t-shirts were to become a thing of the past, something she'd decided late that previous night. She owned very little feminine clothing, bought for her by her mother who insisted she needed at lease _something _girly. One lone dress hung in her closet in her bedroom and that had only been worn once last year at Grandpa Jack and Grandma Lucy's wedding anniversary.

"You know that's not true, Ayla." Lydia pulled open the bread basket and reached for two slices which were then placed in the toaster. "You love toast."

"Not anymore."

She ignored her stubborn nature and walked back to the breakfast bar to put away her own bowl and finished off her glass of orange juice. Aislinn had stuck her nose back into her book and pulled surprised expressions as she read, although she'd already read it a thousand times and Lydia wondered why she was still shocked at the happenings that occurred between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.

Ayla had watched as her big sister placed the slices of toast into the toaster but chose not to say a word. In the midst of the sudden silence which had taken place between the three Bolton girls, the front door opened and closed and suddenly Jayden Baylor was casually making his way into the kitchen, reaching for the orange juice which was sat on the counter as he entered.

"Morning to all."

"Jay!" Aislinn's book was soon forgotten as her ice-blue eyes twinkled upon seeing the eldest Baylor child. Her crush on him was no secret and not comfortable to witness. Lydia's eyes darkened upon seeing him and she sat herself down once again, pretended to be focused on her cellphone that was resting on top of the table.

"Hey, Ash. Hey, Ayla." He affectionately rubbed Ayla's hair and she giggled up at him shyly in response. Jayden couldn't help but laugh at the nonchalant look on Lydia's face as she refused to acknowledge his presence. "Are you at least going to look at me, loser?" He smiled a boyish smile. "I am here to give you a ride to school after all."

"Yeah, well, nobody asked you," Lydia snarled at him. "I still hate you."

"The feelings mutual, Bolton, but I'm always the ever-considerate gentleman. You know I won't get any sleep tonight if I just leave you to walk _all the way _to school by yourself."

"I'll hitch a ride with dad. I don't need you."

Aislinn's eyes narrowed at her sister. "You're a maniac, woman!" She hissed. "It's _Jayden_!"

"He's annoying."

Jayden smirked at her which only caused her anger to soar. "I can wait all day."

"Do what you want, Jay. I'm still hitching a ride with dad."

Jayden sat himself down at the breakfast bar, picking up the morning newspaper and flicking it open before reaching for Aislinn's untouched half-slice of toast. She smiled dreamily at him and allowed him to consume her food without protest. "Yeah, that'll be good. Then you can discuss Snape all the way to school and maybe he'll even forbid you from seeing him before you leave."

"Who's Snake?" Ayla asked as the toaster popped.

"Snape. Close, Ayla-Baby, but not quite." Jayden smiled as Lydia huffed loudly and stomped over to the toaster to fish out Ayla's breakfast.

"I'm not eating that." The young girl protested softly, confident that her demands would be met. "I'm having pancakes."

"We don't _have _pancakes!"

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" Their mother's chanting stopped the impending bicker that would inevitably occur and all four sets of eyes looked up to see Gabriella jogging into the kitchen, running her fingers through her curls frustratingly. "Oh, Lyds, you're all sorted; I'm sorry."

Lydia raised an eyebrow. "You're sorry?"

"Mommy, there's no pancakes, you know."

Gabriella looked from side to side erratically, trying to get her bearings. "I - _we _- overslept," she answered in a fluster. "I never oversleep. Ever."

Lydia finished buttering Ayla's toast and put the small plate in front of her sister, to which she scrunched up her nose and pushed her breakfast away. "I don't want it."

"You eat it or you starve."

"Momma, there's no pancakes, you know."

"I know, baby, I know," Gabriella squeezed Ayla's shoulders affectionately and pulled the plate back in front of her. "I promise I'll buy some after I finish work but only if you'll eat Lyddie's toast for me?"

"It's too toasty."

Jayden laughed out loud and Gabriella snapped her head up. "Oh, sorry, Jay! I didn't see you there."

"It's okay, Gabs. I just stopped by to collect Lyds but she's refusing my so very kind offer for a ride."

"Which technically means that now you should buzz off," Lydia put in.

"I don't think Jay should buzz off anywhere," Aislinn sighed, shooting Lydia a disapproving stare.

Gabriella shook her hands violently mid-air, sensing her daughter's were to be set off again. "Lydia, I think you can put aside whatever it is you're mad at Jayden for for today. You always end up doing so anyway. Ayla, eat your toast, baby, and Ash? _Pride and Prejudice _again?" Aislinn nodded her head quickly before resuming to her page. Gabriella looked around the kitchen again. "Is Mattie not out of bed yet?"

"I hit him with a pillow earlier," Aislinn responded, her eyes never leaving her book. "He's awake."

Gabriella checked her watch. "But he's not even eaten and he should be leaving soon to meet Sammy for the bus." Stomping through the kitchen and towards the staircase, Gabriella yelled for her son and growled low in her throat when Matthew shouted back that he was coming. "And where's your father?" She asked breathlessly as she walked back through to the kitchen. "Surely he can't still be showering?"

Now it was Lydia's turn to check her watch. "He needs to hurry. I'll be late for school."

Gabriella quickly placed four slices of toast into the toaster and smoothed her hands down her white blouse and accompanying black knee-length skirt. Low heeled back shoes sat on her feet and clapped against the tiled kitchen floor as she paced; her mind refusing to calm and sort out the chaotic mess that was occurring that morning. "Lyddie, your dad can't take you to school. I'll need him to take Ayla for me; I'm running too late to take her myself."

"But, _mom_…"

"No 'buts'. Aislinn, would you please go up and collect your brother?"

"It's _Ash_, and he's coming!"

Before Gabriella could let out a growl of frustration, the four slices of toast popped out of the toaster and Matthew slid down the staircase banister, ignoring his mother's look of despair as he did so. "Morning!" He called cheerily, placing his Lakers baseball cap on his head backwards.

"You're going to be late, Mattie; here!" Gabriella thrust a plate of two buttered slices of toast to her son. "Eat up. You'll be keeping Sammy waiting."

Matthew made a point of shoving one full slice into his mouth and sticking his thumb into the air, causing Gabriella to smile a small smile and roll her eyes heavenwards. He was so like his father, it was almost disturbing. "No sweat, ma. Chad's giving us a ride."

"Seriously?" Aislinn stood up and threw her book into her backpack. "Can I hitch a ride too? I don't want to ride the smelly old school bus."

"You ask him politely, Ash. Don't you dare go round there and expect or demand a ride to school."

"But it's only a few blocks from their school," Aislinn protested. "And Chad won't mind. He never minds."

"As long as you're not taking advantage."

Troy chose that time to make his grand entrance, dressed in his warm-up tracksuit and his hair still damp from the shower. Lydia immediately tensed up, anxious to what he'd say - if her mother had in fact spoken to him already as promised. He casually greeted each member of his family and offered Jayden a high-five and asking in regards to Sharpay Baylor's blood pressure and if she'd managed to kill his father before the restaurant function was over.

"_Now _I'm running late!" Gabriella squealed, quickly finishing the last of her breakfast and pulling on a light jacket before reaching for her bag and laptop case. "Troy, could you take Ayla to school?"

Lydia wanted to add "and me" to the equation but held back upon seeing the triumphant smirk on Jayden's face. Her mind officially declared war. He was dead.

"Yes, dear." He smiled when he saw his wife clearly wasn't in the mood for his old martial couple comments.

"Her book bag is by the front door and her packed lunch--"

"--is in the refrigerator but needs an apple adding to it." Troy rolled his eyes. "Baby, I know!"

Gabriella shot him an apologetic smile and pulled her curls into a loose ponytail; checking her appearance quickly in the mirror and deciding she'd have to do. "I'll collect her when I finish work. Mattie, Ash, are you on your way?"

"Yeah, yeah," Matthew waved her off and swung his bag onto his back. "I'll see you later, parental unit!"

Troy chuckled at his son's mannerisms. "Later, children!" He shot back and Aislinn shot him a sarcastic smile before the two made their way to the front door and left for the Danforth residence. When his eyes directed to his eldest and saw she was deliberately avoiding eye contact, he felt bad for a brief second for already harbouring bad feelings about this "boyfriend" that had appeared out of the blue.

Lydia felt his eyes on her and cleared her throat. Jayden somehow sensed her uneasiness and stood up to help her out in a rare form of charity. "Come on, Bolton. Are we making tracks?"

"Yes!" Lydia jumped out of her seat, grasping her gym bag as she did so. "Absolutely, Jay. Absolutely."

Jayden shared a smirk with Gabriella who'd stopped her chaotic mind for the brief moment to observe Troy's behaviour. So far, he was passing the test, but then he'd hadn't actually managed to say anything to his daughter yet to fully qualify. Gabriella knew, however, that this nervousness Lydia was experiencing would only dent Troy's ego as a doting father and knew that it couldn't be easy for him.

"So, you forgive me?" Jayden broke the thick air with another shot at digging at her.

Lydia responded with murderous eyes and a need to pound him over the head with a bat. "Yes," she seethed through gritted teeth. "I forgive you. I can't live without you. You rock my world. Now, let's go."

"Something I said?" Troy enquired softly, finally meeting his daughter's eye.

"No, dad." Lydia managed a smile. "We'll just be late, is all."

Gabriella intervened. "We all will if we don't get a move on." Hastily, she walked over to Troy and pressed a kiss to his cheek as Lydia and Jayden bolted for the door. "We'll talk about it later, okay?" She breathed softly over his chin. "I'm going to be so late…"

Troy grinned at her and patted his hand against her lower back affectionately. "Go, Gabi, go! I'll take care of Ayla… just make sure you get there… and in one piece, please."

"Promise." She smiled and kissed his cheek again, earning one back in return. "Love you." She moved past him and kissed Ayla on the top of her head; handbag and laptop bag in hand, she was all set for a day of teaching to the mass of mathematic and chemistry students that attended UCLA.

"Love you too!" Troy called back to her just before she disappeared out of the front door.

Now faced with a silent kitchen - a rarity in the Bolton household - Troy looked down at his youngest who was slowly chomping on a small chunk of toast.

"Nearly ready, munchkin?" He asked as he reached inside the fridge for Ayla's Disney princess packed lunch box.

Ayla looked deep in thought for a moment and then pushed her unfinished plate away. "Daddy, I'm still hungry. Can we have pancakes?"

---


	3. Disaster

**A/N: *peeks around door nervously***

**Hey… long time, no see.**

**It's been a while, as you well know and though I have my reasons, due to the PM's and e-mails I've received regarding my absence, I feel I should let everyone know where I've been and why I've been so naughty with my lack of updates.**

**I'll keep it short and sweet. It hasn't been the best start to a new year. After a wonderful Christmas and drunken-filled New Year with my friends, I lost my darling doggie, Tilly, after a battle with lung cancer which, in my head, was the ending of life as we know it. Although I can talk about my baby in a positive way (and getting rather pissed she's chosen to only haunting ME! Grr) and know we made the right decision when we decided to have her put down before she felt any pain and suffering, the family were hit hard again after a close relative was diagnosed with cancer… which was then redeemed incurable. Terminal. **

**Yes. In my family, 2009 is officially becoming the year of cancer. And it's only March. **

**However, living in denial has its appeal… and plastering myself finally into writing takes it all away and so I've managed to spit out this chapter with absolutely no effort what-so-ever. So, apologies if it sucks. **

**This denial is also enforcing me to get my groove back for **_**I Feel Sparks**_**. Zac and Vanessa happen to be fantabulous distractions from the real world! Luff them!**

**I would like to take this opportunity to send major hugs and love to Mya, who won't even realise what I'm thanking her for until she reads this. *waves* **

**She knows what shit I've been through this year… amongst other things. And I swear this girl has actual super powers (alongside with her constantly complaining she's cold, I'm very suspicious and quite confident that she's a vampire and hangs around in Edward Cullen's crowd. Yummy.) She can actually detect whether I want to talk about something… and when I do, she's there making it that little bit better, it helps so much. And when I don't… she's there and without even trying takes everything away in manner of Zac and Vanessa being all cute, with her random conversations and general thoughts and musings on life. And the best part is that she don't even realise she's doing it!**

**So **_**Mwah! **_**to Mya! You have absolutely no idea!**

**And **_**Mwah! **_**to all the Kuuipo's at FanForum and VABN… especially Kate and her **_**Falling Into You **_**chapters which just give me that extra boost of **_**le sigh **_**and make me write more of **_**Sparks!**_** Oh, and your channelling? It actually works!**

**Missed you guys! I'm **_**baaaaaaaack! **_

**Holly xxx**

**Chapter Three: Disaster**

"This is a complete disaster." Troy Bolton stared at the plate of fries and cheeseburger and wondered how pissed off Zeke Baylor would be if he were to dunk his forehead into it in despair. After half a day's training, Troy and Chad had travelled to Zeke's restaurant - his small but well-loved business - and once again managed to take advantage of their friends good nature by claiming a free lunch.

Chad shoved as much of his cheeseburger into his mouth as humanly possible. His mannerisms had not changed since birth. "You're over thinking this, man."

Zeke propped his head up on his hand in boredom. Late afternoons were always slow in the restaurant, giving him the opportunity to sit back and have a talk with his long term friends. "Don't give him logic, Chad. I happen to enjoy it when Bolton's all riled up."

Troy narrowed his eyes darkly. "Yeah? Well when Poppy comes home with her first boyfriend, I'll be sure to send no sympathy your way whatsoever. And when you endure the inevitable and _only natural _freak-out, I'll only laugh at you."

Zeke brushed him off with a hearty chuckle. "Poppy's got years yet. I'll just enjoy your squirming for now."

"You just watch it." Troy pointed an accusing finger in Zeke's direction. "It was only five minutes ago that Lyddie was _born. _Trust me, seven years is _nothing_."

"Yeah, but he's got Sharpay to scare off any inadequate takers," Chad put in. "I can bet you a million-squad_dillion _bucks that Poppy Baylor will never hold down a guy purely because her mother hangs around in Satan's crowd."

Troy blinked and slowly turned his head to look at Zeke who was shooting Chad death glares at his comment. Sure, he knew the statement his afro-donning friend had made was true - and also because he knew he wouldn't like his only little girl growing up and discovering boys - but he still felt that overwhelming need to protect. As with any doting male.

Troy, however, saw Chad's comment as a moment of opportunity. "So… Zeke, dude. Could I borrow Sharpay for this whole meeting thing?"

"_Borrow _her?"

"Yeah. You know. To frighten this dude off."

"And Gabriella would be…?"

"Totally oblivious, of course. Sharpay can pretend to be Gabriella and when this _Mike _thinks that Lyddie's mother is actually a product of something that could only be featured in a film with Freddie Kruger, he'll start back peddling quicker than Chad that time that Taylor threatened to shave off his hair."

Both Zeke and Chad pulled a face. "Bolton. That idea sucks."

"It could work…" Chad mused, earning a slap on the back from his best friend. "Would be funny to watch. Downside is, I doubt Gabs would be amused if he tied her, gagged her and put her in a closet for a few hours. And Lyddie, Ash, Mattie and Ayla _may _get suspicious when Sharpay turns up for a _family _dinner requesting to be known as _mommy_."

"That may cause a problem."

"_Or_," Zeke gestured with small waves of his hand, "You could just have the whole first-boyfriend-meeting thing and actually find you like the guy. I think you might just piss Lydia off if you start coming up with all these crazy ideas."

Troy gave him a stern look. "She's sixteen, Zeke. She's not old enough to understand what's best for her."

Chad furrowed his brows. "But wasn't Gabriella sixteen when you met at that lodge?"

"Maybe."

"…and wasn't she sixteen when you guys first dated after that sissy musical?"

"Perhaps."

"And then she was _still_ sixteen when you guys first kissed?"

Troy swallowed. "As I recall."

"And then she was seventeen when you two first had…" Chad trailed off, looking anxiously at Zeke as he tried to spill the words. "You know… when you two first…" Terror dawned over Troy's features as he came to the realisation. "You know… she was seventeen when you two first… and Lyddie's sixteen now so she's actually only a year younger than the age where you and Gabriella first had…"

"Chad. Honestly don't think this side of the conversation is helping…"

"Oh, dear lord!"

"See?" Zeke shook his head slowly with a wry smile as he reached out to take Troy's still half-full and untouched plate. As he reached for Chad's, Chad batted his hand away and continued to tuck into the now cold fries, not really feeling any sense of strain from the conversation; being a father to two boys didn't really call for him to be worried about 'little girls growing up' and the 'evils of first boyfriend' syndrome.

"This is a disaster." Troy shook his head dismally. "Everything is getting so fucked up. You know Gabriella wants him to come to that barbeque we're having next week when my parents fly over? It's like he's already getting thrown in the deep end and everything's moving way too fast; and we don't even know if this guy's any good for her!"

"Let's face it, Troy." Zeke finally managed to wrestle the plate from Chad's grasp. "No guy is ever gonna be good for Lyddie. Or Ash. Or Ayla. And you're gonna have to go through this at least three times. I really doubt all the girls are gonna get their first boyfriend and that be it for life like you and Gabs… You're gonna have to get used to this, man."

Chad swallowed the last of his fries and nodded in agreement. "He's right, though I hate to say it sometimes." He scowled. "This guy might be alright. And what would you have done if Gabriella's mom had refused to be nice to you when she first met you? You would have freaked and maybe you and Gabs wouldn't have got the chance to get to where you are now. And your dad was anal about her before he had a chance to get to know her, but he still gave her that chance and he's loved her like a daughter ever since. You could like this guy. He could be alright."

Troy's eyes narrowed. "Or he could be a jerk."

"Dude, you're a hypocrite."

"Just organised and thoroughly prepared, as Gabriella would put it."

"Or plain delusional. You need to give him a chance for Lydia's sake. She'll never forgive you if you don't."

"And I'll never forgive _myself _this guy turns out to be the biggest jerk alive and hurts her - and _don__'__t _you pull those faces at me!" Troy pointed an accusing finger in his friends faces as he stood up and threw his jacket on. "I know when I'm right, right? I'm always right!"

"Of course you are," Chad answered robotically. "How silly of us."

Troy kept his posture up right, eyeing Chad and Zeke suspiciously and prepared for another argument if the occasion called for it. Seeing that nobody was going to speak up again - or that he knew full well that if they did, he'd be proven wrong - Troy stepped back and said, "right, now we're cleared up… I'm outta here."

"Grocery shopping?" Chad raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "You are so whipped."

"_I__'__m _whipped? I seem to recall _somebody _getting down on his hands and knees and begging for forgiveness from his wife the time he put all the colours and whites together in the laundry!"

"Dude!"

"You two are pathetic, get out of my restaurant." Zeke couldn't keep his humour at bay.

Troy looked despaired as he began to make his way out. "Why the fuck did I decide to stay friends with you two after we graduated? Why, oh why, oh _why?_"

Chad turned his head to Zeke, shaking his head with amusement as Troy exited the building. "You know, I _was _gonna remind him that Lydia has a balcony and a tree outside her bedroom… but we can save that hilarity for another time!"

---

Lydia narrowed her eyes.

It was only lunchtime and already she had gotten herself into such a foul temper that she was sure only a certain boyfriend could cure.

That certain boyfriend, however, was nowhere to be seen. Annoyingly enough, since it was _his _fault the entire female student body were currently shooting her the death glares. They already hated her enough for having such a famous father (and her on-going desire to _not _steal a pair of his underpants for all the high school "sluts" who "disgustingly" continued to embarrassingly crush on him) but now, having bagged Michael Stape (_the _Michael Stape), _the _most popular guy in junior year, she wasn't exactly first on everybody's Christmas card list.

Still, she never let it faze her. Her trust issues with people weren't exactly healthy. Though she'd had a happy and loving childhood, she had also been riddled with the evils of paparazzi following her - whether she had been walking to and from school or trying to hang out with friends - trying to get some sort of scoop of what life was like in superstar Troy Bolton's household. They had often tried to fish for dirt; perhaps some story that the Bolton's marriage was on the rocks and Lydia was fast becoming a product of a broken home.

She had gotten used to "the leeches" pretty quickly in her early childhood and eventually they had backed off - letting her get on with her life and finding some other celebrity to try and dish any kind of false dirt on.

Of course, paparazzi hadn't been the only leeches she had had to encounter. At the height of his Lakers career, her father had been a popular choice for teenage girls to plaster all over their bedroom walls and inside their school lockers and notebooks and folders - also riddled with phrases such as _I heart Troy Bolton, _and _Troy Bolton rules my world_. Lydia had spent a good portion of her school life ignoring the comments, finding them to be gross and just plain embarrassing… especially when girls her own age would stroll up to her, all starry eyed and declare, _"__Oh my god, your dad is, like, so _hot_! I am, like, so _jealous _of your mom! Do you think, like, if they ever split up, like, I could meet him? And then we__'__d fall in love and that would be so _cool _'__cause then I could be your mommy!__"_

It was at times like those when Lydia Bolton seriously contemplated the appeals of jumping from very tall buildings without a safety harness. She'd decided it would be a hell of a lot less pain than having to listen to girls swooning over her own father. Ew.

It was the same girls who'd try and befriend her, who'd insist on coming over for dinner and meeting her father, who'd get all starry-eyed and tongue-tied around him and generally make utter fools of themselves. It was the same girls who were just too over-the-top, who really just wanted to be friends with Troy Bolton's daughter just so they could go back to school the next day and tell all their friends they had stood _in the same room _as their favourite hunky pin-up, and that he'd _actually spoken to them! _Of course, on top of that humiliation, Lydia had also had to put up with said girls then turning on her mother, calling her names and picking at invisible faults just because she had married said hunky pin-up.

It was these girls that always shot her the daggers. The type of girls Lydia never wanted to know or be associated with. She never told her parents about any situation involving the jealousy that circled her in school; instead she embraced it and often used it to try and annoy them as much as possible, much to Jayden's amusement. Though he laughed along with her about it at times, even joined in with the banter (especially since as the most popular guy at Sunhill High, girls hated Lydia more for knowing Jayden Baylor on a deeper friendship level), Jayden always hung out in the background, waiting for the inevitable girl who just went too far to upset his friend, and like a flash of lightning he'd be up front, defending her, comforting her and disliking anyone who dared to make her cry.

But it was Jayden's comment about her boyfriend that bothered Lydia the most. The comment where he'd compared Mike to every girl who'd tried to use her in the past just to meet their hero. Mike was undoubtedly a huge Lakers fan, a self-confessed Troy Bolton admirer. He was his hero, he was the guy Mike had based all his basketball dreams on, the role model he'd looked up to for years and years.

But that was okay, right? That didn't mean anything. At least, Lydia's stubborn mind refused to believe anything but. Jayden had spent the entire drive to school that morning reeling off reasons upon reasons why Michael Stape was no good for her, why her dad would never like him, and why he'd _never _fit in with the Bolton family. He'd repeated the same line over and over, _"__He__'__s acting like he__'__s lucky because he__'__s dating Troy Bolton__'__s daughter. Not Lydia. Troy Bolton__'__s daughter.__"_

It had frustrated her to no end and upon arriving at school, Lydia had hit Jayden with her book bag and slammed the passenger car door shut before screaming, "JERK!" and running into the school without a backward glance. She hated that Jayden knew how to push all the wrong buttons with her - he'd always been able to. The only person who ever could. Why couldn't he just be happy for her? She knew he hated Mike, and vice-versa, but he should at least be civil towards her first boyfriend. Be happy that someone she'd always thought was so out of her league had chosen her, had _wanted _her and wanted to commit to her. Mike was school royalty, the hotshot, the hottest guy… yet he wanted plain old simple Lydia.

That thought alone was enough to send butterflies spiralling through her stomach.

But now Mike was nowhere to be seen. He had made a habit of meeting her at her locker at the beginning of lunchtime and free periods to escort her to wherever he and his large group of friends would hangout at these particular times. Being with them, Lydia always felt out of place, like she was in some twilight zone. But the thought of fitting in never occurred to her - just the thought that she was sitting there, on Mike's lap, his arm around her… hanging with his equally popular and basketball-loving friends… it was the high school lifestyle she never thought she'd be in.

Whether she fitted or not.

Slamming her locker door shut and banging her back up against it in a moment of frustrated impatience, Lydia's face softened slightly as her long-time friend and fellow team mate of the Sunhill Tigers Girls Squad, Eloise Pembroke, made her way towards her.

Eloise, although a keen, enthusiastic and upon brilliant basketball player, she was also the biggest girly-girl Lydia has ever encountered. Apart from her adoptive Aunt Sharpay, of course. These two very different sides of Eloise had given Lydia the idea of nicknaming her Jekyll and Hyde - the Hyde side of her, of course, was her incessant need for shopping trips, make-overs and an over-enthusiastic love for fashion. For so long, Eloise had expressed a need for Lydia allowing her to give her a make-over -- hair styling, make-up introducing, clothes and accessories galore -- but everytime, Lydia had threatened her with whatever 'weapon' had been available to her at that time and Eloise had gradually stopped pressing the matter further.

Until Mike Stape had arrived on the scene.

"Lyds!" Eloise greeted her enthusiastically and joined her beside her locker. "No Mike?"

Lydia shook her head. "Probably held up somewhere. Maybe the principals office. Again. Who knows?"

"That meaning you'll be joining us for lunch today? You haven't spent anytime with the team outside of practice since Mike came along -- not that I'm saying it's a bad thing. Who wouldn't wanna hang out with _that _twenty-four-seven? But we've missed you, Lyds! You can't fault us on that!"

Lydia broke out into a smile, realising for the first time how much she'd missed hanging with her ever loyal friends on the squad. Girls who didn't judge her because of her lack of fashion sense, girls who idolised her father without the disrespect towards her and her privacy, girls who too thought she had a hot boyfriend and made a brilliant catch when she agreed to date him, girls who didn't shoot her the evil glares out of jealousy.

"Sure, El. I've missed you guys too. I'm actually in need of some sort of girly talk." Here, Eloise gasped in glee, causing Lydia to pull a face. "Not _that _much of a girly time; don't over-excite yourself. Just… Mike. Meeting my parents. And the utter horror it is that has been bestowed upon my life."

Eloise linked their arms as they made their way in the general direction of the cafeteria. Lydia turned her head back towards her locker one more time, trying to see if Mike was making his way there by now.

He was nowhere to be seen. Still, she wasn't fazed. Her _boyfriend _was probably out there practising his awesome basketball skills in such a determined fashion or, as she suspected, he'd be at the principals office again - more likely for back-chatting the teachers or causing general mayhem in the classroom as the class clown. It was that part of his personality that Lydia hoped would appeal to Chad.

"Horror? Why would it be horrific?" Eloise enquired. "Meeting the parents. That's a big deal, you know."

Lydia ground her teeth together. "I know. That's why its so horrific. I talked to my mom about him last night for the first time and she didn't freak out like I thought she would. She actually calmed me down, but then I never expected anything less from her. I think my mom has these super-natural calming powers. They don't work all that well on dad… well, they do, after a short while. Takes a little longer to get through his stubborn head."

"And yours sometimes," Eloise grinned. "But I agree. Your mom is the calming guru. So why's that so horrific?"

"Because they haven't worked on my dad yet. At least, I don't think so. She said she'd speak to him last night when he got home from this restaurant function thing the Baylor's were holding… and when I saw him this morning, everything was just… awkward and tense. It's_ never _awkward and tense with me and dad."

"You always said he'd freak out, Lyds. Whether it was Mike or some other guy. He's a dad, and he's male… they're anal about _everything! _When I brought my first boyfriend home, my dad interrogated him and nearly went out to buy a lie-detector machine just to make sure he was telling the truth - from what jobs his parents had to his intentions over me… Seriously, embarrassing."

Lydia let out a loud sigh. "But I don't _want _it to be embarrassing! And knowing dad, he _will _go out and buy a lie-detector machine. Maybe even a rifle. And then he'll hold Mike up against the back wall, blindfold him and ask him every question under the sun. The minute Mike answers something dad doesn't like… _BANG!_"

Eloise couldn't help but let out a snigger. "I'd love to watch that!"

"I wouldn't!" Lydia was exasperated. "I want them to love him! I want dad to take him to one side… maybe show him his trophies… his never-ending line of Lakers jerseys… maybe show him a few tricks. I want Mike to feel so comfortable with dad; he is a role model, after all. Wouldn't it just be this _dream _if they got along like that? And maybe dad would see him as a son, treat him like it, and then warn me from ever letting him go?"

Eloise raised an eyebrow. "Is that your dream, Lyds? Or Mike's?"

The fury that had been bubbling inside of her since Jayden had interrogated her that morning threatened to spill at Eloise's words. "Oh, El! Not you too! Can't _one freaking person _just talk to me about him without thinking he's trying to get to my dad?! Is it _that _unbelievable that I could just be with someone and that someone actually like me?!"

Eloise stopped and held her hands up in a defensive pose. "Woah, Lyds, I never said that!"

"You implied it."

"Without intention. Seriously. I think this thing with you and Mike… it's great. You're happy. You've entered the unknown and sure, I see you looking uncertain with it. But you're happy. And I'm happy for you. But what you just said there… I'm not gonna lie and tell you it didn't make me a bit wary. You know you can't sit there and tell me nobody's ever used you for your dad before… I'm bound to be get wary over a statement like that."

"I know." Lydia ran her fingers through her tangled curls in frustration. "It came out wrong. And, yeah, it might be Mike's dream. As it is any other Troy Bolton fan's dream. But it's mine too. I really like him. And I know he likes me… for _me.__"_

"Hey, if you know so, that's good enough for me." Eloise offered her friend a supporting smile. "And the minute you feel otherwise - _if _you ever feel otherwise - then that's good enough for me too."

"Sometimes I really hate what dad does for a living. I mean, of course I love it. And I'm so proud of him and what he's achieved and I want all of that too. But there's that really small part of it I hate; the part where everyone thinks you owe them something just because your dad is this superstar basketball player. And then when all your friends start doubting your life choices and the people who come into it - just because they _think _its all to do with my family and who they are… To tell you the truth, it's annoying the hell out of me."

"As I can imagine." Eloise re-linked their arms and they started back on their journey towards the cafeteria. "And your friends are just worried about you, I'm sure. And when I say _friends_, I assume we're talking about Jayden, right?"

"Jayden?" Lydia's voice turned sour. "You mean the parasite I have to see every day of my life because my parents made friends with Zeke and Sharpay back in high school and never once thought of the consequences of that?"

Eloise laughed out loud. "I love you two! You're so funny!"

"Funny?" Lydia's eyebrows knotted together, not seeing the humour for herself. "You, along with this entire damn school are under the impression he's this legend, this god… Well, I have news for you, Pembroke, he's _not! _Do you have any idea how damn annoying he is? I can't believe nobody sees it but me!"

Eloise's eyes went wide. "Annoying? Did you try mentioning hot? I can't believe _everyone _sees it but you! I know your head's in Mike-Land right now with his so obvious hotness. But Jayden? _W-O-W_."

Lydia scrunched her nose up in disgust. Eloise wore the same expression Aislinn wore everytime Jayden was in the same vicinity as her. "It's…Jayden," was all she could come out with.

"He's _gorgeous_, Lyds! You _have _to at least admit that."

The scrunched up nose reached up into a frown on her forehead. "…no," she replied after a short pause, trying to see him in that light. "He's just Jayden. He's like this… really annoying older brother. Or like a seriously bad case of head lice you just can't seem to get rid of… no matter how much you attack them with various things in order to make them disappear."

Eloise looked as though her friend had just spoken in double Dutch. Some sort of alien life-form language. She couldn't fathom how anyone could describe Jayden Baylor as anything but gorgeous, and Lydia Bolton had just compared him to _head lice?! _

She'd seen his parents on many of her visits to Bolton household. Jayden was a perfect image of his father - the face, the body, the beyond brilliant basketball techniques and the heart of pure gold. His hair was constantly pulled back into braids that ran along his head and down to the middle of the back of his neck… always tidy. Always presented. She figured he got that part of his mother's personality and Eloise wasn't the only one who was thankful for that after meeting Sharpay Baylor. Jayden did, however, inherit his mother's beautiful deep green eyes. Dazzling, sparkling… most girls claimed they could see right into his soul through those eyes - the eyes that had humorously become so famous in their uniqueness.

Eloise Pembroke was just plain speechless. Everyone could see that about Jayden Baylor except the girl who had known him her entire life?! The girl who saw him on a day-to-basis; the girl who was so close to his family and knew him inside out? She couldn't see it?!

The object of their conversation suddenly came sauntering down the corridor, surrounded by his Sunhill Tigers varsity team and a large crowd of female followers hanging on their every word and almost fainting at every look they were given. It made Lydia want to puke.

Jayden's eyes sparkled upon seeing her and Eloise, although not in his direct view, suddenly felt flushed and fought an urge for more oxygen.

"Lyddie!" He called out to her, unusually by the loving nickname her parents had bestowed on her the day she was born. "Talking to me yet?" the mischief dancing in his eyes as he and his friends stopped directly in front of the two girls.

"That depends," Lydia folded her arms tightly, stubbornly. "Are you still being an ass?"

Her comment was rewarded with a collective _"__Oooh!__"_from Jayden's friends and he chuckled in response. "You want me to break the habit of a lifetime? And I thought you loved that about me."

"Pah!" Lydia called in complete sarcasm. "If you're gonna carry on, you can just crawl up your own ass! I don't care!" She ignored the chuckles and laughter coming from Jayden's friends and instead directed her fury at him. It wasn't anything unusual and in a normal circumstance, Jayden would laugh along. But the unwelcoming presence of Mike Stape was enough to emit anger in his own eyes as he placed his arm tightly around Lydia's shoulders.

"Baylor," Mike addressed him with a smug smile.

"Stape." Jayden swallowed the need to punch him in the nose as Stape wheeled Lydia so she was standing directly behind him. "Do you mind? Kinda having a conversation with Lyddie here."

Mike smirked, his arm now moving to Lydia's waist as he held her in place. "And if _you _don't mind, I'm a little late for our lunch date. You're very welcome to join… but I'd kinda like a little alone time with the girlfriend, here."

Jayden tensed in his stance, his friends following his lead as they stepped forward in a gesture that said 'we've got your back'. Lydia narrowed her eyes in annoyance and moved out of Mike's grasp to stand between the two.

"Ugh, _seriously! _You two are like two kids! I swear my little brother's more mature than you two, and that's saying something!"

"Hey, babe, I'm not being immature here!" Mike had still been unable to wipe the smile from his face. "Just laying out the groundwork… telling it how it is. And sorry I'm late by the way, Mr. Garner _so _does not have a sense of humour!"

"Yes. And what were you saying just now about maturity?" Jayden dug in.

Lydia's eyes turned a furious blue. "Would you just _stop?! _Is your main goal in life just to piss me off, Jay?! For _once _can't you _just-_"

"Just what?!" Jayden shot back, almost shaking with his anger. "Sit back and let this creep control you? _Change _you? Use you?! See, you might be blinded by his masked charm and flattering smile, but I know what this psycho's like!"

"No, you _don__'__t_!" Lydia pushed against Jayden's chest as hard as she could, blinded by anger, fury and inevitable embarrassment she would feel when this was over with all the pairs of eyes that had stopped to watch the impending fight between the two most popular boys in the school. This would make for some serious gossip later on. And gossip and Lydia Bolton were not the best of friends. "Just _stop it_, okay?! I mean it!"

Mike held out his arms to pull Lydia away. "Come on, babe. He's not worth the time."

Lydia just stared at Jayden, her eyes burning into his. Usually, he'd laugh. Usually, he'd find her anger such a joy simply because she looked so adorable and just because it was just so completely Lydia. But the person he was staring at now… he'd never seen so blind before.

Jayden acted in the split second it took as Mike directed Lydia away and back towards the cafeteria. Reaching out and grasping her wrist, Jayden didn't think about his grasp hurting her as he hurled her straight back towards him and pressed his palms to her cheeks, forcing her to look at him.

"You know I wouldn't be like this just to be a jerk, Lyddie. You _know _me and I know you _know _Stape's not worth it." He was desperate - maybe more so than he originally thought.

"Hey," Mike curled his arm back around Lydia's waist. "I think _Lyddie _here knows what she wants. Now, do you mind? Kinda hungry here." He pulled Lydia away effortlessly; Jayden allowing his hands to slide from her delicate features as she stepped away from him; her eyes still locked on his. The fire was still visible, just not as visible as it had been mere seconds before.

Eloise shifted nervously on the balls of her feet, having been right up close to the action and feeling the discomfort. She watched as Jayden stepped away; his friends patting his back and telling him to back away; Stape wasn't worth it. She also watched as Lydia allowed Mike to take her away from the scene; the smile back on his face and his arm curled around her neck, almost as though he was holding her in a headlock. The harsh kiss he planted right on her lips without restraint was enough to make Jayden's fingers curl into a tight fist.

Feeling to a duty to be there for her friend, Eloise stepped forward and shot Jayden a small smile to which he didn't respond. And then she quietly followed Lydia into the shocked and soon-to-be gossip ridden cafeteria.

---

Gabriella narrowed her eyes with an amused smile as she Taylor sat in a small café just a few blocks away from UCLA, watching as Sharpay dabbed more powder onto her nose and inspected a small blemish that had reared its ugly head on her chin.

"It's times such as these that make me so happy!" Taylor put on a not-so-complimentary fake sob.

Sharpay snapped her compactor shut and narrowed her eyes at Taylor. "So glad you find this amusing, McKessie."

Gabriella couldn't help but let out a chuckle. Even after all these years, her friends hadn't changed one single bit. Between the three families, there were nine children. _Nine. _Had anyone have told Gabriella back in high school that not only would she remain friends with those people she loved most but that they also had _nine _children between them.

Taylor and Chad's two boys, Sammy and Alex, were both spitting images of their father and had lovingly adopted Chad's mannerisms and infectious personality. Taylor didn't mind since she's discovered her brain was the dominant gene (she'd known all along, but never wanted to seem too cocky) and their boys were brainiac's in their own right. Gabriella loves Sammy and Alex, especially since she and Troy had become their godparents.

Taylor and Chad had long since decided that two children were enough but Gabriella knew that Chad was craving for that little girl. He'd always been close to Lydia, Aislinn and Ayla but Gabriella decided he needed that little girl of his own. All it took was to convince Taylor…

"Weren't you there when I gave birth to Alex?!" She'd exclaim. "It was _torturous_!"

Sharpay would scoff. "You wimp, McKessie. Try giving birth to twins and then you can approach me with a complaint!"

And then the argument would go on and on until everybody had forgotten the root cause of the original conversation.

Just the very thought of Sharpay Evans becoming a married mother of three was enough to send anyone into a cardiac arrest. Gabriella had to hand it to Zeke - all those years of hard work back in high school coaxing the drama queen with cookies had officially paid off. Poppy and Ryan -- named affectionately for Sharpay's love of all things girly and her ever-loyal brother - were the cutest twins. While Jayden had inherit his looks primarily from Zeke including skin tone and colour, the twins had more of a creamy mocha effect with lighter coloured hair and Sharpay's facial features including those dominant green eyes.

"You're off in La-La Land, Bolton." Sharpay knocked Gabriella back into reality. "Care to share your thoughts?"

"Just…thinking." Gabriella smiled. The three girls had met up on Gabriella and Taylor's lunch breaks since Taylor's offices were close to UCLA, they had made it a daily thing. Sharpay, although living and working nowhere near the two girls had instantly felt left out and had made it her mission to join. Even if it was for a mere hour.

"About the psycho your daughter's currently dating?" Sharpay enquired.

"How did you know Lyddie had a boyfriend?" Gabriella's brows furrowed together. "And _psycho?!_"

"Jayden told me last night. That boy has such a temper; I swear, I don't know who he gets it from."

"Uh, you?" Taylor offered with slight sarcasm.

"Wait, wait." Gabriella could see already they were veering off course. "Jay called Mike a psycho?"

"It's just jealousy, Gabriella," Taylor put in. "Anyone can see he has the hots for her."

"Please!" Sharpay scoffed. "They can't get through one single day without arguing!"

"You know there's a fine line between love and hate."

Sharpay poked her tongue out childishly in Taylor's direction.

Gabriella giggled. "Well, no, I wasn't thinking about that, actually. But now I am. You know Troy's freaked out about this? I haven't had a chance to _really _talk to him about it but I know he's freaked. And Lyddie's just plain scared of what he's going to say and how he's going to act… How do I deal with this?"

Taylor laughed. "You don't. You just let him freak, meet the guy and then realise he's been a total douche bag about the entire thing. Have you met him yet?"

"Is he really a psycho?" Sharpay added hopefully.

"Haven't met him yet, no. Lyddie only told me about him last night. He wants to meet me and Troy, as soon as possible apparently. I figured we should meet him at the weekend… you know, when Jack and Lucy fly over? You guys will be coming over for a barbeque, right?"

"You mean to ask if we're going to come and witness Troy cracking at the seams?" Sharpay looked horrified. "You should know better than to think we'd miss _that_!"

Gabriella cracked a grin. "I was hoping you'd be there for moral support for when I have to reign Troy in. He's not going to be taking this lightly."

Taylor leaned forward in her seat. "Are you taking this lightly, Gabs?"

Gabriella thought to herself for a few moments. "I guess. I mean it's difficult to wrap your head around. Your little girl isn't exactly little anymore and I know that's the main thing Troy can't cope with. It's like it's all sinking in… it's getting closer to that point where she'll be graduating, moving to college, getting married, getting a career, having her own babies… it's just that teeny step further towards all of that and its weird. It's getting to that point where her parents won't be at the top of her list when she needs help… she'll have someone else there instead."

Taylor smiled softly. "Such is the life when you have kids."

Sharpay's facial expression had actually become sympathetic. Gabriella wondered if she was thinking about the day Poppy would eventually come home with her first boyfriend and how she'd react. Somehow it was different with girls than it was boys. Boys always had that feel of independence and security about them… girls… well, as far as father's were concerned, they would always be their little girl's number one.

"I can remember my mom having that freak out when things really started getting serious between me and Troy." Gabriella smiled to herself. "She wanted to know everything about us… I was so scared that after she was done with me, she was going to start on Troy too. But I can remember thinking '_I__'__m a big girl now, mom. Leave me alone! I know what__'__s right for me!__'_and now I'm in _her_ shoes… well, the word 'hypocrite' comes to mind."

"It's a parent thing," Taylor waved it off. "That's what my mom always used to say to me."

"I just worry that she may get in too deep… that she might lose herself along the way. I don't know. I can't actually reach any decision about how I really feel until after I've met him; I've got to keep up this strong persona around Troy. If I lose it, we'll be looking at the best mental institute to put him in."

When her cellphone began to ring a familiar tone, Gabriella grinned in spite of herself and Sharpay pretended to be sick.

"Hello?"

"_Babe. I need calm. Zeke and Chad are pricks.__"_

Gabriella chuckled at her husband's antics. "Did you go to the store today?"

"_Yep. Got Ayla__'__s pancakes.__"_

"And did you call your parents? We need to arrange flight times and whatnot."

"_Done.__"_

"And while you were at the store, did you get necessities for the barbeque? We need lots of food; Sharpay and Taylor will be there too with the families. Oh, and we'll need to ask Lyddie what Mike likes to eat too."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. _"…__I thought I asked for calm. How is this making me calm?__"_

Gabriella rolled her eyes and shot Taylor a knowing look. "He's a guest, Troy. We have to cater for guests."

"_Hmph.__"_

"You sound like an old man."

"_Thank you so much for saying, love of my life!__"_She giggled again. _"__You can ask her. I still have to work on the whole __'__being a supportive dad really__'__ thing.__"_

"I think you should ask her actually, Troy. She's a little apprehensive about you meeting this Mike and I think it'll make her feel better if you put in some sort of effort."

"_Won__'__t make me feel any better.__"_

"This isn't about you, is it?" Her tone was harsh as she spoke. "Honestly, Troy. Imagine if our parents hadn't given us a chance?" There was another pause on the other line. "Make an effort…" Gabriella pouted, knowing her magic would work even over the phone. "Please?"

Troy heaved a sigh. _"__Fine! I__'__ll ask! I__'__ll be good! I__'__ll even put the boy in my will if you carry on the way you are! I__'__ll make a damn effort.__"_

Again, Gabriella giggled and she ignored Sharpay's sarcastic comment of, "aren't couple's supposed to get less sickening as they get older?" comment to Taylor.

"So glad to hear it," she smiled to herself softly as she heard him fidget uncomfortably at the other end. "Just talk to her, okay? And no sex talk either. We'll cross that bridge when we-"

"_Sex talk?!__"_Troy squeaked. _"__Who said anything about--?__"_

"I said we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"You've done it now…" Taylor coughed.

Gabriella rolled her eyes again. "I'll be home later, okay? No visualising scenarios that involve you, Mike, a shovel and making it look like an accident. Okay?"

A sigh. _"__Okay.__"_

"I love you."

No hesitation. _"__I love you too.__"_

As she put the phone down, Sharpay started chuckling to herself, nearly choking on a breadstick in the process. "I can't wait for this barbeque! We're going to have _so much _fun!"

---

Jayden Baylor hadn't had a good day.

As he stomped over to his car, he slung his backpack over the bonnet, ripped his open and made a search for his iPod for the journey home. He would have to pick up Ryan and Poppy from school, something he never minded doing since he loved his younger brother and sister to pieces. They'd make him forget, for at least a moment, how entirely shitty his day had been.

Upon finding his iPod, he picked up his bag and threw it into the back seat mercilessly, before turning around and capturing a glimpse of Stape - his arm wrapped tightly around Lydia's neck.

He was no match for her - whatever made her think it was _she_ that was so out of his league?! Jayden couldn't fathom it and he could analyze it for years if it didn't disrupt his sanity so much.

He caught Lydia's gaze. Stape didn't notice. Probably too busy thinking about how wonderful _he _was and how close he was to attaining his goal just through being with Lydia. And Jayden knew it had nothing to do with how amazing she was.

Jayden locked gazes with her and shook his head slowly in despair. Lydia just blinked as Stape led her over to his car. When her fury rose again upon interpreting Jayden's thoughts in exact precision, she tore her eyes away from her long time friend and tightened her grip around Stape's waist.

Jayden shook his head again, but to himself. A sigh escaped his lips as he dejectedly opened his car door and got inside.

Lydia Bolton: the very life and death of Jayden Baylor.


	4. Thinking About Thinking

**A/N: Here, guys. Another update for you just hours before I leave the country for a week ;) **_**Star Crossed **_**will be updated not long after I return. For anybody who's a **_**Twilight **_**fan, I've recently put up my first **_**Twilight **_**fan fiction which can be located through my profile ;) Please, check it out. So nervous about it -bites nails-**

**For those who haven't seen **_**17 Again, **_**you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Zachary, I love you even more!**

**FYI, this story? A forty-year-old Troy Bolton does **_**not **_**resemble Matthew Perry! **

**Enjoy! xx**

**Chapter Four: Thinking About Thinking**

Troy hadn't really managed to do anything productive for the rest of his day. He put it down to Zeke and Chad's lack of sympathy and had therefore decided to go on some sort of strike - a strike he knew wouldn't have much effect, but still, he was enjoying the fact that he'd spent the rest of the day lying out on the couch after doing a quick grocery shop and picking Ayla up from kindergarten.

It was now four o'clock and the rest of his family still had not returned home. But Troy knew the basic routines of their day. Gabriella usually had some late classes and then a long drive home from UCLA, so at the latest, Troy wouldn't expect his wife home until around six. Lydia's school always ended at three-thirty, and since she often got rides home from Jayden, he wouldn't expect her back for a another ten or fifteen minutes since Jayden had to pick the twins up from school on the way home. Aislinn and Matthew always chose to walk home with Sammy Danforth and Troy knew they'd make a quick pit stop at Chad's house (he knew it was so they could take advantage of Taylor's recent cookie-baking addiction) before returning home a little after four-thirty.

This schedule memorised in his mind, Troy was really surprised when he heard a familiar car pull up on the driveway outside and moments later, the front door open to reveal Gabriella's footsteps on the laminate flooring.

"You're home early," he called out from the living room, tuning down the volume of the basketball game he was watching on TV. She was home far too early for everything to be alright, he mused, and wondered if that "evil" professor had made yet another move on her. "Everything okay?"

Gabriella emerged into the room less than a few seconds later, a wary smile on her face. "My last class are on a fieldtrip for the day with another professor. Thank god. These heels were killing me by lunchtime." To stress her point, Gabriella stumbled as she tried to balance herself as she removed the shoes from her feet.

Troy frowned with a small smirk on his lips as she hobbled over to him. "Again, why do you insist on wearing the killer heels to work?"

"It's uniform."

"To kill yourself?"

"Troy," Gabriella rolled her eyes with a smile. "I have to look presentable."

"And hot." He deliberately eyed her up and down. "If all my teachers looked as hot as you, I would have paid _far more _attention in school."

Gabriella ignored her husband for a few moments, a slight red tinge making its way onto her cheeks as she eyed her favourite comfy spot in the world which included his shoulder, neck and chest. "Shut up." She finally replied before snuggling up into his body - her head rested on his shoulder, her face pressed into his neck and her body lying across his chest.

There were a few moments of comfortable silence. Gabriella blissfully closed her eyes and snuggled closer - the long day taking its toll on her. Troy just wrapped his arms around her body before eyeing her bare feet and spotting the soreness on her toes.

"Come here," he breathed, reaching down to hitch her leg up and around his waist. Once it was secure, he then reached for her foot and began massaging it, causing her to whimper in delight at his actions. "I think you and I need a vacation."

"Hmm…" Gabriella gave off a dreamy smile. "Hawaii."

"Bahamas."

"Fiji…"

Troy thought for a moment. "Bed…"

"You and your one track mind," Gabriella chastised but couldn't help the smile that graced her face. "But as tempting as that does sound right now, I don't think I have the strength to move with you massaging my foot like that. Plus, the kids will be home soon. You know how they feel about PDA."

"Hey, if it wasn't for our PDA, they wouldn't be here! They should respect the PDA."

"Where's Ayla?" Gabriella felt a swift change of topic was needed.

"Playing in her room. I stopped by the store and got her pancakes -- which, incidentally, she's decided she doesn't like anymore."

The brunette laughed heartily at her youngest child's antics. That was so typical Ayla.

Silence again.

When Troy looked down at his wife again, she was fast asleep.

---

"You're grouchy."

"Mom, I'm not grouchy."

"Puh-_leese_! I'm your mother, I know when my baby boy is grouchy."

"Shar, babe, if Jay _is _grouchy, it's probably not a good idea to call him your baby boy," Zeke helpfully put in, earning himself an eye roll and an obviously grouchy growl from his eldest child.

Sharpay was sitting primly at the kitchen table, helping Poppy and Ryan with their math homework. She wasn't the best candidate for the job but she loved her mother role. Poppy and Ryan barely needed the help anyhow, and when they did they'd politely ask their elder brother for his input.

"Are you grouchy because Lydia is currently with the psychopath?"

Jayden gritted his teeth. He loved his mother, he really did, but sometimes he wondered how the hell his dad had put up with her all these years - not to mention the Bolton's and the Danforth's. He had to give extra special sympathy towards his Uncle Ryan who had grown up with her, undoubtedly living the horrors of Sharpay as a toddler and teenager before she finally changed (slightly) into a mature adult.

"No," he replied flatly. "And calling him a psychopath isn't meant to be a good thing, you know. Wouldn't you be worried?"

Zeke pinched the bridge of his nose in despair. "Jay, son, please, _please_ do not use that phrase around Troy. You didn't have to listen to him freaking out at lunch today. And Chad teasing him wasn't rectifying the issue either."

Jayden folded his arms, pondering his father's thoughts. "Troy freaking out, huh? Interesting."

"Don't even go there."

"He's every right to. And he's right on the money. Michael Stape wants stringing up with some very unpleasant parts of his anatomy; I'd like to do it but I think I'd be happy to let Troy take the reigns with this one."

"You can do it next week. Gabriella's invited us all to a barbeque they're having with Troy's parents fly over and apparently, the psychopath's going too. Meeting the parents - like I'd miss that opportunity!"

Jayden pulled a face. "Stape will be at the barbeque?"

Sharpay pouted at the look on his face. "Aww, Jay! Don't you want to see Troy kill the psycho? It would clear the way for you."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't look so shocked! I'm your mother, I know _everything _that goes through your mind. _Everything_."

Zeke looked blank. "She's right. Everything."

Jayden ran his fingers through his hair, irritated. Poppy and Ryan had looked up upon hearing Lydia's name.

"Where was Lyddie today, Jay?" Poppy asked innocently. "She didn't pick us up today."

"Don't you worry, Pops," Sharpay smiled at her daughter affectionately, tickling her under the chin. "I'm sure she missed you both today, but Lydia's currently living in denial."

"What's that?"

"A river in Egypt, but you're too young to understand, baby. Now, what's your next math problem?"

Jayden shook his head in frustration before spying one of his basketballs sitting on the counter. Heading towards it, he brushed past his parents and siblings, muttering a "whatever" before heading out the back door and towards the hoop which was situated at the back of their yard. It wasn't a cool half-court like the Bolton's had but it was enough for Jayden for when he needed to think and let off steam. Usually, it was his mother who caused him to get into those moods and today was no different.

He knew she loved him and only wanted what was best for him but why did she always have to use irritation as her secret weapon?

Bouncing the ball on the freshly cut grass, Jayden made a shot and barely made the net - one of his sloppiest shots yet.

He couldn't understand what was the matter with him. He'd known Lydia Bolton practically his entire life - there wasn't a memory he had of his life that didn't include her. More than often it included them and another fiery arguments and/or fight, but he could never remember feeling hatred towards her nor resentment. She'd been that constant in his life - so much so he couldn't imagine living without her. The concept of that truly frightened him… terrified him more that it frightened him to picture life without her.

He'd never thought of her as ugly. He could remember being eleven years old and hanging with his friends at school and telling them he thought she was the only girl he knew that wasn't weird looking. He could remember them laughing at him and making a joke out of his statement, but never once did he take that back.

He made another shot. It hit the rim of the net before lazily falling in. Basketball wasn't half as fun if you weren't playing a one-on-one game against Lydia.

He sighed loudly, making his annoyance heard as he caught sight of his mom walking across the yard towards him, a small smile on her face.

"Mom, I'm practising. I'm in my zone. I need peace."

"You want your dad to help you out?"

Jayden shook his head. "Kinda like alone time every once in a while. You can take the hint if you want."

Sharpay smirked. He'd inherited her sarcastic nature and she couldn't be more proud. She'd long gotten over the fact that Jayden would never get up and perform on a stage since Poppy had shown a keen interest at her young age.

"Are you thinking things over?" She asked tentatively. "Because that's okay, if you're wondering. It's not like you and Lydia are related or anything. And as much as the thought disturbs me of you two someday getting married and me and Troy having to become in-laws, I'd only want you to be happy."

"Mom." Jayden closed his eyes in frustration, feeling his blood begin to boil once again. "She's my friend and yeah, I care about her. But that's as far as it goes, okay? I've always hated Mike Stape and I'll never waver on that. He's using Lyds and I'm just worried about her. In a _friendly _way."

Sharpay hid a knowing smile. "How do you know he's using her?"

"He practically dry-humps his Troy Bolton poster he's got hanging up in his gym locker," Jayden replied dryly, making another shot which hit the rim of the hoop aggressively.

Sharpay's wide eyes blinked and hope shined in her hazel orbs. "Let's hope he tries to actually dry-hump Troy at this barbeque! Think of the fun!"

Jayden had to crack a smile at the imagery. "It would make my day. Maybe Troy will kill him faster." Twirling the ball idly between his fingers, Jayden finally looked up at his mother in somewhat desperation. "She thinks he's this…god. She's so delusional. Her self-esteem is at an all time low, mom, and I never thought Lydia would ever think so low of herself. She thinks _she__'__s _the lucky one but everybody knows that he's completely out of _her _league. He's nothing but a low-life who just wants to meet his idol. He doesn't care about her. He parades her around school like some trophy, just so he can brag to people that he's dating Troy Bolton's daughter."

"That's gotta be sucky."

"It is! It's _infuriating_ is what it is! She just doesn't see it and I've told her over and over but you know what she's like -- stubborn as hell and everything she thinks is _always _right!" Sharpay smirked at Jayden's impression. "And I know it's her life and it's none of my business, but she just makes me _so angry! _She doesn't understand what an absolute jerk-off he is or that she deserves so much more… She won't listen to logical advice and she actually thinks he's being _committed _by wanting to meet her parents. The bastard has alternative motives!"

"Jay, baby, I love you but I will have to pummel you with your own basketball if you use language like that with the twins not so far away."

"Sorry," he mumbled, taking a deep breath. There was a slight pause as he pondered his next words. He didn't want to look too obvious, especially when he wasn't even sure of his own feelings and especially in front of his mother. "It's just her being all Lydia and making me as stressed out as possible. You'd think after seventeen years I'd be used to it."

Sharpay just smiled and nodded her head before slowly and silently turning on her heel and leaving her son alone with his thoughts.

---

Lydia had felt a large surge of absolute coolness when she'd got into Michael Stape's car after school and he'd given her a ride home for the first time. She'd even felt a sense of pride when her superstar boyfriend had pulled up outside her house and had practically drooled at the grand scale and beauty of it before nearly hyperventilating at each of her parents cars.

"This is just beyond awesome!" Mike had nearly tripped over his own feet as he took in the sight of Troy's black Audi. "What wouldn't I give to drive a car like this?"

"Um, I wouldn't touch it," Lydia put in apprehensively as Mike reached out to touch the bodywork. "Dad goes kinda crazy if anyone touches the Audi."

"Well, course he would! He understands and appreciates fine automobiles! Do you think he'd take me out in it sometime?"

"Uh…"

"Not right away. That would be too weird. Is this one your mom's?!" Lydia thought she'd almost lost her boyfriend to a cardiac arrest.

"Uh, yeah. But dad always picks her cars. Mom's doesn't really specialise in cars." She stopped and watched as Mike circled her mother's Audi convertible again and again, and she hoped beyond all hope that her parents didn't look out the window and see a total stranger fawning over their cars. "So… are you excited about the barbeque?"

"Yeah. Gonna be totally awesome." She was certain mike Stape's mind was elsewhere.

"My Grandpa and Grandma Lucy will be there too. They're flying up from Albuquerque so you'll get to meet them too."

"Will any of your dad's team mates be there?" Mike finally looked up from Gabriella's car hopefully.

Lydia shuffled her feet. "Not really. Mom only invited our close friends - the Danforth's and the Baylor's. They've known mom and dad since high school in Albuquerque so everybody knows each other. It's kind of a reunion thing while grandma and grandpa are here."

"Oh."

"But they're really, really cool. And you know Chad, right? He played on the team with dad."

"Chad Danforth! Oh my god, hell yes!" Mike pumped his fist in the air. "So, why the fuck have they invited Baylor's family?" He asked in disgust. "I don't remember Baylor's dad playing for the Lakers."

"Um, no. Zeke owns a few restaurants but he played in the varsity team in high school with dad and Chad, and he's really good at it."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "He ditched basketball for food?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. He's always wanted to be a chef so I guess he picked the right thing for him."

"What a loser." Mike clicked his tongue. "No wonder Jayden's related to him. It obviously runs in the family."

Lydia couldn't help it, but she felt her eyes narrow dangerously at the comment. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again when she realised what she was about to say: _"__Jay isn__'__t a loser.__"_Like that would go down well. She did feel an overwhelming sadness at Mike calling Zeke Baylor a loser - he was practically family, one of her father's best friends, and always supportive and helpful to her when she needed him. To hear Mike call him loser upset her.

She bit her lip and cast her eyes downwards and Mike made another trip around both cars admirably. After a few minutes of absolute silence, he finally looked up and strolled over to her, placing his arms around her waist and leaning her back so she was standing up against his car.

Her impossibly blue eyes looked at him hesitantly.

"Something wrong, babe?" He enquired softly. "You've gone all quiet."

Lydia shrugged her shoulders. "It's nothing."

"Nothing?"

Lydia nodded dumbly. In all honesty, she had no idea how to respond to him. She felt a strong need to stick up for the Baylor's but couldn't find it within her to say the words. How would he react? Would he be angry? He knew that Jayden was a very close family friend… but then that was probably one of the reasons Mike didn't like him.

She continued to ponder in silence until Mike tipped her chin backwards and slammed his lips against hers, quashing her thoughts and making her surrender to his will. Lydia kissed back as confidently as she could manage, still hesitant and still unsure. At the back of her mind, she wondered if her parents were standing at the window watching her make-out session, and whether her father had decided to invest in a shotgun and shovel.

She hoped they weren't. This kiss was a kiss so different than any other she'd experienced before and she really didn't want her parents privy to it. Mike held her closer to him, tighter to him, his hands vastly exploring the soft skin of her back as they slid up under her shirt. His tongue duelled violently against hers and she whimpered at the unfamiliarity of it. Lydia fisted her fingers in the front of his shirt, clinging on for dear life as Mike seemed to dominate her body's reactions. It was an alien feeling to her, one she hoped she'd get used to sooner rather than later.

At the sound of a clearing throat, suddenly it wasn't her parents watching that Lydia was worried about. As Mike ripped his lips away from hers, Lydia breathlessly looked over to where the noise was coming from and found her younger brother and sister watching with disgusted looks.

Aislinn had her arms folded neatly over her chest whilst Matthew was grinning wickedly at the two, his eyebrows wiggling and his tongue clicking against the roof of his mouth in a teasing manner.

"Sis!" He exclaimed. "Who's the douche bag?"

Lydia closed her eyes in annoyance. And so it started… "Mattie, shut up," she sighed in embarrassment as her cheeks turned pink. "Do you have to be rude to people all the time?"

Matthew held his hands up in defence - a stance that was all too similar to his father's whenever he got into trouble with his wife. "I'm just asking, Lyddie, _jeez_!"

"Sorry," Lydia mumbled to her boyfriend, who was currently tight-lipped as Matthew shot him a thumbs up. "I swear he was adopted."

"Hmm." Mike replied, turning his body to face the two younger Bolton's. He folded his arms, matching Aislinn's posture and smiled a wide smile. "So, these guys are your siblings, huh?"

"Um, yeah. That's Mattie and that's Aislinn."

"Aislinn?" Mike smiled gently at the thirteen-year-old. "That's a strange name."

"Well, my parents are a little more creative with names than others. Not every parent gives their child boring old plain names, _Mike_."

"Ash!" Lydia hissed with dark eyes. "Stop it!"

"There's Ayla too," Matthew put in, pointing towards the house. "She's six and she really hates strange men." He paused mischievously as Aislinn coughed a laugh into her hand. "Not that I'm calling you strange or anything… you could be a normal douche."

"Mattie!"

"Well, he could!"

At Lydia's murderous glare, Mike stepped forward and pulled Matthew's Lakers baseball cap from his head before playfully scrubbing his floppy hair. "Don't worry, babe, it's all cool," he chuckled, briefly admiring Mattie's genuine Lakers cap. "My little cousin can be an asshole too."

"Is this really your boyfriend, Lyds? He sounds _so nice_." Aislinn's voice was dry as she looked Mike up and down disapprovingly. "Where's Jayden?"

Aislinn had asked purposely and Lydia knew she had done so. She was testing the waters, confirming her own initial judgements on her older sister's choice of boyfriend. Lydia would call it being a brat, Aislinn would call it being protective when dad wasn't around to do so.

"He's… not here," was Lydia's lame response. She felt Mike tense up beside her.

"You guys like Baylor?" He enquired with a raised eyebrow, trying to look neutral, at least. "Is Baylor here a lot?"

"_All _the time, right, Mattie?" Aislinn responded happily, nudging her brother.

"Oh yeah. I don't get why he just doesn't move in!" Matthew added, reaching back up to snatch his cap back and place it back on his head in the backwards position. "But we don't mind. He's the coolest guy in the world. Not that _you__'__re _not cool or anything, Mike. It's just that Jay has a lot of coolness already in his system and he doesn't have to work hard to be cool. Like me."

"You guys had better get used to a cooler guy making his way around here soon. You know I'll be here for your barbeque next week."

"Oh yeah. That… thing." Aislinn pondered the scenario in her head, cupping her chin to demonstrate her deep thinking. "There are a few rules you should know first about the Bolton house. First, our parents don't believe in pre-martial hand holding."

"Stop being a bitch, Ash," Lydia hissed.

"Ask dad," Aislinn replied smugly. "Think he'd enjoy that disgusting display you were both doing earlier? Uh, no. Pre-martial hand holding is a no-no. Secondly, dad likes to be called Mr. Bolton."

"Or Sir," Matthew not-so-helpfully added in. "Or Chief."

"Definitely loves Chief." Aislinn grinned wickedly.

Lydia put a sympathetic hand on Mike's bicep. "Don't listen to them, Mike. Please."

"And if you look at my mother in a certain way, dad flips."

"He's got these pills to take for his temper."

"_Huge _temper. We have a cage in our basement that we have to keep him in when his moods get out of control."

"They're scary," Matthew shuddered from dramatic effect. "Hasn't Lyddie told you?"

"Alright! That's enough!" Lydia screeched as she stomped towards her two mischievous siblings. "Are you guys trying to ruin my life?! Go away before I pummel you both into next year!"

"Oooh! Scared!" Matthew taunted, laughing at the thunderous look on her face. "Oh, come on, Lyds! We were only teasing!"

"It's not our fault if your boyfriend's really uptight," Aislinn remarked as she and Matthew made their way to the front door of the house. "Jay is chilled."

"Jay has put up with you for years so he's used to it! If you can't say anything nice to Mike then just fuck off out the way!"

"_So_ telling mom," Matthew shook his head in mock dismay.

"Tell her." Lydia was now officially in stubborn mode. "See if I care."

Aislinn smirked again as Lydia fell back defeated against the side of Mike's car, covering her face with her hands. Feeling phase one of her mission was now complete, she guided Matthew to join her inside the house and closed the door behind them.

Mike let out a small growl in the direction of where Aislinn and Matthew had gone and turned to look at his girlfriend. "Babe, they're just obstacles. I don't care."

"I'm sorry," Lydia mumbled into her hand quietly. "They've always been annoying and I knew they'd do something hideous when they first met you, but I didn't think they'd be _that _evil."

Mike closed the distance between them, resting his hands on her hips. "They're not important. They aren't the ones that matter."

Lydia raised her eyebrows in confusion. "They aren't?"

Mike shook his head. "I'm not bothered about impressing your brother and sisters, Lyd. It's their jobs to be jerks and they certainly didn't disappoint there." At his words, Lydia groaned and buried her face back in her hands. Mike grasped a tight hold of her wrists and pulled her hands away harshly. "I'm more concerned about your mom and dad. If they like me - and I think they will - we can do anything, okay? They're the ones we need to break."

"Break?"

"You know, bond with. As a couple. I didn't believe the bullshit they were spouting off about your dad - he's always seemed a pretty cool guy to me."

_He would when you__'__re watching him play__…_Lydia thought. She knew there was some truth to Aislinn's words - her dad would be freaking out about all this; he'd even take his time in getting to know and like Mike the way she wanted him too. She was preparing herself for the long haul, making him see that what she had with Mike was real and that they were going to stick it out and prove everybody wrong. What worried her was that her boyfriend was contemplating a sudden father-son bonding scenario with her dad only seconds after introducing himself and shaking his hand.

"He is a cool guy," she answered honestly. "The best. But I don't think you should be getting your confidence so high so soon. He's gonna be really sceptical about us."

Mike's expression changed drastically. "Why?"

"I… you know…" she struggled for words. "The whole daughter starting dating thing… it's not comfortable for any dad and he'll have to adjust to this-"

"So make him adjust to it." Mike's tone was flat, almost demanding. "Maybe he wouldn't be so uptight if you had told him about us from the start."

"But, I--"

"Nothing. But fucking nothing, Lyd. I was so fucking offended when I found out you hadn't told them about us, but I gave you that chance to make up for it and you're _still _acting like he knows fuck all."

"Mike--"

"You need to tell him what a great thing we've got going on here. He needs to know so when it comes to this barbeque, he's gonna realise that I'm the best fucking thing to come into your life. I could be the son he never had - except your brother, of course."

Lydia gulped. "That, uh… may not be the best thing to say to him, you know? He had another son… I had another brother. He was older than me… my mom was pregnant a year or so before I was born and my brother died in the womb. It's kinda a sensitive subject and we don't talk about it much but when we do… it's kinda sad, you know? So saying that you could be the son he never had would upset him."

Mike breathed a sigh. "Whatever. I'll be the other-_other _son then. And I won't mention it - I'll just act it. Look, this barbeque can be absolutely amazing or it could be a total fucking disaster. Which would you rather it be?"

"Amazing, of course, but--"

"So to make it amazing, _you _have to start doing some damage control. Fuck knows what your brother and sister are saying about me in there… more to the point, what fucking _Baylor _has been telling them about me. You need to get in control of this, Lyds, because honestly, if you're going to keep on lying about this--"

"I'm not! I swear!" Lydia grasped a hold of his shirt tightly, desperation seeping through her as though he was going to leave any second. "I'll take care of it, I swear I will."

Mike softened his mood as he took hold of her jawline and tilted her head up slightly. "That's better." He smiled. "You look like you actually care about me there."

"I do." Lydia's bottom lip trembled and she wondered how she ever managed to fuck everything up already. Almost. "I do care and I'm sorry about before. And about not telling them. And--"

"Apologise by sorting," he smiled again, pecking her lips chastely. "I've got to head off, babe. Places to go, people to see."

Lydia bit her lip as he abruptly stepped away from her and casually walked around to the drivers side of his car. "Will you call me later?"

"If I remember." He winked at her and she smiled gently. "You'll be too busy sorting out this mess, right?"

"Right…"

Mike winked again and got into the car. "Say hi to the parents for me, babe." His music blasted out of the stereo, the car started up and suddenly he slammed on the accelerator, speeding away from her without a backward glance.

---

"Dad…" Aislinn poked her father's cheek as he lay fast asleep on the couch with her mother snuggled up beside him. "Dad, come on…"

"Earthquake!" Matthew declared, raising his arms in the air.

Gabriella stirred and buried her face further into Troy's neck to drown out the sounds that were trying to rouse her from her comfortable nap. Troy's eyelids fluttered and an irritated groan escaped his lips.

"That's not going to work," Aislinn rolled her eyes at Matthew dramatically. "You know they both slept right through the last major quake. The house could have collapsed and they wouldn't have known."

"Worth a shot." Matthew shrugged. "How about… FIRE!"

Troy groaned again and lifted the blanket he'd draped over Gabriella earlier up over their heads.

"See?" Aislinn gestured towards her now covered parents. "We could be getting barbequed here and they wouldn't even care."

"Child abuse."

"Definitely. I'm going to write a strongly-worded letter to the president about the lack of child support."

Matthew itched closer to where Aislinn was seated beside Troy and Gabriella's heads on the couch. Pulling the blanker back down to reveal their sleeping faces, Matthew poked his index finger on Troy's forehead again and again. "Dad, you promised me a quick game after school. It's now after school. Quick game time."

Nothing.

"I'll pitch first if you like."

"Mom, you said we could discuss getting a dog after school. It's after school. Discussing dog time."

As Matthew continued to poke Troy's forehead, Troy's hand drifted upwards and batted his sons hand away as though it was a fly buzzing irritably around his head. Matthew chuckled at the response and then moved to the bottom of the couch where their feet were tangled comfortably.

"I could tickle him…"

Aislinn's eyes widened. "No way! You know what happened the last time!"

"He wasn't _that _angry…"

"He threatened adoption."

"He didn't mean it…"

"Mattie! No!"

As little brothers often do when advised not to do something, they do it anyway, and Matthew smirked as he trailed his fingers up and down the length of Troy's foot, causing it to jiggle and kick up in the air before the grunts of his father came to life and Matthew deceased his actions before he really got into trouble.

"Hi, dad!" He grinned as Troy's eyes fluttered open, a confused expression furrowing his forehead. "Welcome back! Good sleep?"

"What…" Troy started before getting cut off with a yawn. Gabriella was shifting slightly, her sleep finally broken as she slowly but surely returned to consciousness. "I fell asleep?"

"Lazy bones," Aislinn chastised. "Both of you. I do have a schedule to keep. I need adequate time to nag you both for a dog before I do my homework and I've already wasted fifteen minutes trying to wake you up and get rid of the jerk outside."

Gabriella rubbed her eyes as the light blinded her. "Troy, what--?"

"Kids are home," he responded straight away, glaring at his son who was sitting there with an innocent expression on his face. "Mattie's first in line for a butt kicking contest."

"It was Ash's idea."

"Was not!"

Gabriella sat up, running her fingers through her matted hair. She hadn't realised just how tired she was until she'd come home and snuggled up to her husband. "What's going on?"

Aislinn sighed heavily. "I need to start nagging you both about the dog issue. We need one. A family home just isn't a home without a dog and you promised we'd talk about this later. Now is later."

"Ash," Gabriella smiled thinly. "Could you please just let me get myself sorted before we start this? I hadn't even discussed this idea with your father yet and by the look on his face, he doesn't look all too thrilled with the idea."

"Not entirely, no." Troy huffed.

Aislinn stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "Mattie and I just spent an _unspeakable _amount of time trying to get rid of the jerk-off out there that Lydia has decided she's seeing and this is the thanks we get? Jayden was right - he is a snake."

"Who?" Troy blinked, his eyes darting straight to the window. "What?!"

"Uptight Mike," Mattie grinned. "He hates me and Ash."

Gabriella's face fell. "Oh no. What did you both do?"

"Nothing too bad," Aislinn replied. "We were nice as pie to the moron. But that's what he is - thought you'd like to know. And as Mattie and I have already drawn up an accurate conclusion about the… what did you call him, Matt?"

"Douche bag."

"Ah, yeah. Douche bag. Since he's now an official douche bag as stated by Ash and Mattie law, we really don't need him at this barbeque, do we?"

Gabriella's face hardened. "Aislinn Bolton, for your sake, I really hope you're lying to me right now."

The front door opened and slammed shut and it was only seconds before Lydia entered the room, a hard glare on her features when she looked at her brother and sister. "Hey," she directed to her parents. Gabriella looked at her daughter sympathetically whilst Troy's face was blank. He still wasn't sure how to deal with the issue.

"Hey, sweetie," Gabriella smiled. "Did you not want to invite Mike in?"

Lydia narrowed her eyes at Aislinn and Matthew. "No. I'm scared of what these two cretins will say to him next."

"They won't." Gabriella's voice was firm and authoritive as she glared at her two younger children. "They're going to apologise to you and they're going to treat Mike with respect from now on. _Aren__'__t _you both?"

"Sorry." Matthew mumbled as Troy discreetly nudged him with his foot to obey.

"Yeah, me too." Aislinn returned half-heartedly.

Lydia's expression didn't soften. "Your apologies mean squat to me. Thanks for almost ruining my relationship! Don't you think I have enough to deal with through this? Don't you think I'm nervous enough about this barbeque? Well, you've made it ten times worse… and for Mike too! If you can't be nice to him then I suggest you keep your stupid immature thoughts to yourselves!"

Lydia didn't give anyone a chance to respond. She briefly locked eyes with her father before turning on her heel and making her way out if the room and stomping up the stairs towards her bedroom. As soon as they heard her bedroom door slam shut behind her, Gabriella turned her soft eyes to Troy.

"Troy," she sighed. "I think it's time you had a talk with her."

Troy gulped. "A talk?"

"You know what I mean. I know it's hard for you but just think how all this is faring on her. You need to show an interest, make her see that you're rooting for her happiness and whatever and _who_ever that entails so that she's not beating herself up about this barbeque." Gabriella soothing rubbed his back as she spoke, encouraging him to set aside all his doubts and be there for his daughter.

Troy took in a deep breath and nodded numbly. "Yeah, okay, I'll go." He slowly entangled himself from his wife and stood up, obviously contemplating what he was going to say upon entering Lydia's bedroom.

As he left and Gabriella's heart practically melted, she allowed her posture to harden as she gazed over at Aislinn and Matthew. "As for you two," she narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Hell is going to seem like a holiday camp after the punishments I got in store for you both…"


	5. That Awkward Parent Thing

**A/N: Sorry about the delay, peeps. My muse needs a good work-out.**

**Just want to say thank you and offer huge cuddles to everyone who nominated me at the intothelines fan fiction awards. **_**Broken **_**won Best Tear-Jerker and I can't express how unbelievably appreciative I am about this. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :o) **

**Here's the next chapter; hope you like xx**

**Chapter Five: That Awkward Parent Thing**

As he climbed the stairs towards his eldest daughter's bedroom, Troy tried desperately to remember if those parenting books he and Gabriella had bought and read all those eighteen years ago had a chapter dedicated to advising you on how to talk to your seventeen year old daughter about boys. Remembering nothing, he figured he'd probably kiss the feet of any person who decided to release such a book - and if they could helpfully write the entire thing, publish it and get a copy to him within the next five seconds, he'd love them forever.

He slowly passed Ayla's bedroom and stopped in her doorway, smiling adoringly at his six year old as she played with her dollies on the floor, completely unaware of his presence. But his smile faded as quickly as it had sprung upon realising that although Ayla was only six, it would only feel like days until she was seventeen and she was bringing her first boyfriend home. The thought terrified him.

Lydia's bedroom was furthest down the long hallway. Troy took a deep breath; he knew nothing in life could be any harder for him than this. He remembered back in high school when he and Gabriella began to get _really _serious, how his mom sat him down and discussed responsibility and feelings and other mushy stuff until she tentatively brought up the sex talk and scared him to death when she talked about her first time with his dad. Gabriella had assured him the sex talk didn't need to take place yet with Lydia… but, still, the _thought _that it _would _take place sooner rather than later had him wanting to beat himself senseless with a baseball bat. Anything that would ease the pain of his current dilemma.

"What?" Lydia mumbled through the door as Troy lightly tapped against it.

He cleared his throat quietly. "It's me. You wanna open up?"

There was a small pause of silence as Lydia contemplated her dad's request. "You'll only come in anyway, right?"

Troy grinned in spite of himself. "You know me so well." He opened the door and slammed his hands into his jean pockets awkwardly. Lydia was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her double bed clutching her teddy bear, Percy, tightly to her chest. Troy smiled slightly, remembering purchasing the bear whilst Gabriella had been six months pregnant with her. Percy may have been old and tattered from seventeen years of cuddles and love, but Lydia refused to have him out of her bed.

Baby blue eyes that matched his own locked gazes with his. Lydia raised her eyebrow and huffed annoyingly. "Did you want something, dad? Or are you about to finish what Ash and Mattie started?"

"You know me better than that, Lyddie."

Her eyes softened. "You were freaking out."

Troy feigned ignorance. "What on earth makes you think _that_?!"

"I saw it in your face downstairs just now. And you're right, I do know you too well. And just for the record, Mike's not a douche bag. I'm guessing Matt and Ash told you that much."

Troy shrugged. "Something along those lines."

"Well, they don't even know him. And now you and mom are gonna think he's some kind of asshole who isn't good enough for me and you're probably here now to tell me he's officially un-invited to the barbeque thing."

Troy sighed loudly before placing himself down on the end of her bed. "Lyddie, just so we get this clear, to me and your mom, _no one _is ever going to be good enough to you. Same with Ayla, same with Ash. Mattie's going from girl to girl already that it isn't even considered serious - but even when he gets to be your age and heads in the serious relationship direction, the only thing me and mom will be concerned about is whether he's treating a girl right…" He drifted off in thought. "And is being safe… but I really don't want to focus on _that _right now."

Lydia breathed, twiddling her fingers anxiously in her lap. "Isn't that a bit sexist?"

"Not intentionally, no. You have to understand that to me, at least, you three are my baby girls who constantly need my protection. I look at you, Lyddie, and I still see that four year old who would cry for me in the middle of the night everytime she had a nightmare. It seems like only yesterday you were born and the midwife placed you in my arms. It's not an easy thing for a parent to admit to themselves that their baby is growing up and heading their own way in life."

"I won't be living here forever."

"I know that. It's just a scary thought when you have to sit back and acknowledge the changes are happening when you get to a certain age. And, okay, yes, I guess that means I've caved and admitted in so many words that this whole thing _is _freaking me out - but for those reasons only. Don't think your mom and I are trying to make your life as difficult as possible… we just need to adjust to this."

Lydia shrugged her shoulders, starting to feel more at ease. She looked down at Percy and played absentmindedly with his legs. "Mom seemed okay when I told her about Mike. She didn't freak."

"Your mom is some kind of superhero, Lyds. She gets to freak out and hide her emotions well. As usual, she's the brains of this operation."

Lydia contemplated her next words, not knowing where to start. She was surprised her dad had managed to strike up a conversation to her about this; she was so certain she'd have to make the first move to try and force it out of him once her mom had managed to break that first barrier. He was right, her mother was some kind of superhero. She watched as Troy picked at her bed covers nervously. He wasn't good at the talking thing, she knew that.

"So… me and Mike," she ventured slowly, and Troy looked up at her finally. "Are you still freaking out?"

"A little."

"There's nothing to freak out about. I'm not doing anything illegal, I'm not on the verge of making you a grandfat-"

"Woah. Stop. Right there. Don't even finish that word or I'll seriously banish you to the tower for a hundred years."

Lydia giggled at the horrified expression on his face. "Okay. I promise. I won't say anything related to that for the next--"

"Billion years," Troy finished again, managing a small smile. "It'll make me feel so much better."

There was a brief pause of silence. He felt better for talking but it still didn't ease his nerves over the entire situation. If he had his way, he'd be banishing her to the tower already and guarding it with fire breathing dragons. But since all men fell under the rules of their amazing women, Troy would have to suck it up, accept that this barbeque meeting was happening and that he would be shortly entering the seventh layer of hell.

He was pleasantly surprised when his daughter quickly flung herself at him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

"Thanks, dad," she said quietly, tightening her hold on him. "I was so worried this would just be all screwed up. Jayden's not making it any easier and the last thing we needed was for you and mom to hate this."

Troy tensed up slightly as Lydia relinquished her hold. "Yeah," he answered simply.

His daughter's eyes were now considerably brighter. "He's really excited about meeting you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. Big, _big _fan. But not like those creepy stalker girls we get hanging around here. And certainly not like Ash's drooling friends."

"Well, uh, that's a good thing, I suppose."

Lydia let off a small chuckle and snuggled in closer to her dad's side. She had forgotten why she was so worried in the first place - this had been easier than she thought.

Troy bit his lip anxiously. His heart hammered loudly in his chest. His stubborn side refused to let down, and although he had cheered his daughter up as his wife had suggested, he couldn't stop the nagging _fatherly feeling _inside of him from raging.

Something inside of him _knew _that this Mike would be no good for her.

But until the official meeting, he could keep up the pretence.

For now.

---

Jayden Baylor had officially passed the phase of simple annoyance.

He was dangerously swaying on the border of hate, jealousy and being generally pissed off.

He had counted on that damn Troy Bolton. _Counted _on him. For the brief moment he managed to speak with Lydia that next day, all she talked about was her relief and happiness that her dad appeared to be okay with Mike Stape, and that he was looking forward to meeting him at the fast-approaching barbeque.

Damn you, Troy Bolton.

The only comforting thought was Lydia's side comment about how evil her two younger siblings were after they had humiliated Stape. At least he could count on Aislinn and Mattie to be complete terrors in his absence.

He felt his blood boil as he participated in the pairs drill that he'd set the Sunhill Tigers varsity basketball team - but his focus was not on his partner.

It was on Michael Stape, who'd managed to break free of the practise he'd set and meet Lydia in the middle of the gym. The junior and senior girl's squad had free reign of one half of the court for their practise session, yet their star player had decided that her snake-like boyfriend was more important than her team.

Mike had his arms wrapped tightly around Lydia's waist; her body pulled tightly against his. Every now and then, Mike was pressing his lips to hers, causing a major scene of PDA in front of both teams and making a vast majority of them gag.

"Fuck, Baylor," Dean Sampson, his current partner and vice-captain dribbled the basketball hard on the floor. "Aren't you gonna sort Stape out? Not only is he smooching during practise, but he's majorly making Lyds uncomfortable."

Jayden stopped still. "He is?"

Dean gestured obviously to the pair. "She's so squirming. I tell you, if I handled Jem like that, she'd be bitch-slapping me 'til dawn. I'm all for a little gropage … in private, this is."

"Humph." Jayden grunted and gestured for his friend to throw him the ball. "Doesn't look like she's putting up much of a fight."

"They never do with Stape. Jem used to have a thing for him before we became an item, but she said that all blew out the water after he dated her friend Anna and dumped her like yesterdays news once she gave up the goods. Apparently, the guy's got octopus limbs."

That caught Jayden's attention more that anything else - even more than where his best friend was currently still allowing Mike's tongue to try and see what she had consumed for breakfast that morning.

"Anna Bates? She dated Stape?"

"For little over a month. Jem said she was jealous at the time." Dean pulled a disgusted face. "Whatever, right? All the junior girls are after his ass, but after the way he treated Anna, Jem and all her friends have this vendetta against him. Jem said they already tried to warn Lydia away from him."

"And what did she say?"

"To mind their own business. Jem was pretty pissed at how Lydia refused to listen to them."

A small smile crept up onto Jayden's face. "She is stubborn. Way too stubborn."

"Stubborn, huh? She doesn't seem to be giving Stape a look at her stubborn side, does she? The prick seems to be getting everything he wants now, right? Hey, did I hear right? He's meeting the Bolton's at this big family bash?"

"Yeah." Jayden growled softly at the imagery. "It's a barbeque thing. The extended family is coming down and the Bolton's invited us all to join."

Dean smirked. "So, you'll be there to crash Stape's happy little meeting?"

Jayden returned the smirk. "Crash? Hell, he could do that all on his own. I really don't think Troy and Gabriella will be too thrilled to hear about how he handled Anna Bates, either." He suddenly tensed up as he caught Stape's hand groping around for Lydia's backside. "Lydia's not stupid, though." It seemed he was trying to convince himself more than Dean.

Dean shrugged his shoulders. "She's freely making out with him during basketball practise in the middle of the gym. That's not like her, right?"

Jayden shook his head. "Oh, no, she is stupid when it comes to that jerk-off. But not _that _stupid that she'll sleep with him on demand. She knows better than that."

"Jem thought Anna knew better too, but it turns out Snakey Stape is a lot more charming than we give him credit for."

"He'll meet my fist if he tries anything."

"Woah, dude!" Dean laughed and threw the basketball over to his friend. "That's a _little _overprotective for someone who's _just _a friend, right?"

Jayden threw the ball back with dark eyes. "I've known her since forever, Dean. And our families are closer than close. If she'd dating a prick, then it's up to me to look after her until she sees sense."

"Whatever, man." Dean shook his head and laughed. "So, are you gonna break them up, or what? 'Cause letting Octopus-Boy with his slimy eight limbs slithering all over your so-called best friend isn't exactly looking after her."

Jayden felt the adrenaline pumping through him. "You got my back?"

"Hell, yeah. Always got your back, man."

As Jayden and Dean approached the snog-fest taking place in the middle of the court, Jayden swore he heard Lydia whimper slightly - and it wasn't a nice whimper either. He could tell she wasn't lost in the kiss - if he could even describe it as a kiss. Her eyes were shut tightly, scrunched up almost as if in concentration. Her self-esteem seriously did not suit her.

"Ahem." He made a point of folding his arms as Stape made an exaggerated show of pulling his tongue from her mouth and slurping at the same time. "Interrupting something, Stape?"

Stape smirked in Jayden's direction and Lydia was breathless. "As a matter of fact, Baylor, you were."

"Well, I thought I'd be kind and just remind you of your surroundings. This is free period, in case you weren't aware, and if you were even more clueless about why we're here, this is called basketball practise. And since your skills are seriously lacking on court and you're this close to getting benched, I'd think you'd want to make the most of these sessions."

Mike's eyes narrowed in hatred. "Just humouring the girlfriend, Baylor. You know how it is when they get all girly and start missing you after a couple of minutes."

Lydia backed away a couple of steps, still in a distant haze. It appeared to Jayden that she hadn't been as willing a participant in the kissing as he'd first thought.

"Well," he tried so hard to keep his temper at bay. "If your priorities right now are, as you say, _humouring _your girlfriend, then maybe you won't be too annoyed if I bench you for the next couple of games."

Mike's eyes widened drastically. "You wouldn't dare," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Jayden held his hands up in defence. "I'm the captain of this team; you tend to keep forgetting that, Stape. And if I think my hard-working team deserves the best on the court, then I'm going to take action to make sure _my _team get just that. You better start stepping up to the plate now unless you want to be benched for the rest of the season."

Dean's intimidating pose behind him did wonders for Jayden's threat, and Stape marched past them both in an angry huff before harshly scooping up the nearest basketball and sloppily throwing it towards the net. It hit the rim and then the ground so loud, it sent echoing vibrations through the tense gymnasium.

---

Gabriella wouldn't admit it out loud, but she seriously loved being the domestic goddess.

After an enjoyable day at work, she'd picked up Ayla from kindergarten and then headed straight home to start the dinner preparations. It was a very rare occasion that she'd beaten Troy home from work, and she'd suddenly come over this urge to keep herself busy until he and the rest of her family came home.

Ayla was sitting in the living room with the television on; Gabriella could hear it was some sort of child's programme, but thanked the heavens that Ayla hadn't ever taken to that annoying purple dinosaur.

Speaking of annoying…

"Aloha!" Ever since Zeke had whisked Sharpay off to a paradise surprise vacation in Hawaii, everyone had had to endure Sharpay's needs to use terms from the language. Gabriella rolled her eyes with a smile.

"In the kitchen!" She called out.

She heard the heels of Sharpay's heels click across the laminate flooring and smiled again as she greeted Ayla to be met with silence. When the television was on, Ayla Bolton was always in her own world.

"My god, your daughter is so rude," Sharpay commented as she finally made it into the kitchen and sat herself down at the breakfast bench. "Mmm, smells good, Bolton. What are we having?"

"_We _are having pasta and roasted vegetables, and Ayla isn't being rude - she's just transfixed at the moment."

"You know too much television is bad for them."

Gabriella shot her friend a pointed look from over her shoulder and continued to chop up the vegetables. "You know she barely watches it. Did you just come over here to nag at me?"

"Meh. The kids are still at school, Zeke's still at the restaurant. Got bored pretty quick."

"You get bored pretty quick with everything in life."

"Is it too much to ask for a little company?" Sharpay shot out. "Or are the entire Bolton family just being rude all of a sudden?"

"No," Gabriella sighed softly. "Just wondering if there was any particular reason, is all."

Sharpay tapped her fingernails on the surface of the breakfast bar and used her other hand to prop up her chin as she watched her friend work. There was a few several minutes of pause before she finally decided to speak up.

"I think my son has the hots for your daughter."

Gabriella turned around quickly and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you do, do you?"

"For sure."

"And here was me thinking you just thought they hated each other because they've argued since, well, birth."

"Maybe I discovered McKessie's right with her whole fine line between love and hate stuff. But don't tell her that I think she might be right - I couldn't deal with that humiliation."

Gabriella chuckled and leaned back against the countertop, loosely folding her arms over her chest. "So, what's been going on?"

"Jayden's getting more narky everyday. And I'm pretty sure there's more to it than him just being a grumpy teenager - Zeke's told me to leave him alone, but I hate it when he's grumpy. And you know why he's being so grumpy?"

"Hormones?"

"No. It's your eldest and her psychopathic boyfriend."

Gabriella sighed again and turned back around to continue with the dinner preparations. "Sharpay, please. I'm asking you nicely here. Lyddie's really nervous about this barbeque and introducing him to everybody - particularly Troy - and if you keep referring to him as psychopathic before any of us have even laid eyes on him, you're just going to make this whole thing worse. Troy's freaking out enough as it is without you putting silly ideas into his head."

"I personally don't think they're silly. Jayden's really upset, Gabriella."

"They've been friends forever. It's natural for him to feel low initially after his friend gets herself a boyfriend."

"No, I mean he's _really _upset. He hates this _Mike_ person; he said that he's worried about Lydia being with him."

"Worried?" This time, Gabriella couldn't ignore her friend's incessant nagging. Again, she turned around and showed Sharpay she was prepared to listen.

Sharpay shook her head briefly. "I don't know anything for certain, but I know my Jayden is a decent guy."

"He is."

"And even though he has his teenage hormonal moments, I'm pretty sure that he's not making exaggerations purely because he's confused about how he feels about Lydia. I had to practically force Jay to talk to me about why he's acting the way he is, and what he said did make me slightly apprehensive."

"Slightly? You? You don't do anything slightly, Sharpay."

"Which is why you should take me seriously right now. And I swear this isn't some competition where I'm trying to force you to make her dump this psycho and fall for my Jay. I'm just giving you the 411, as they say. Jay says this Mike is bad news, and I think you and Troy should keep that in mind."

Gabriella ran her hand tiredly down her face. "This parent thing is so hard."

"You're telling me! They say the labour is the hardest part… they have no idea!"

"I think we owe it to Lyddie to be open-minded about her first boyfriend and get to know him before we make judgements, but then I guess I will take what you just said into account as well."

"Just be cautious. And anyway, it's not as if this barbeque can be ruined -- Troy _and _Jack being there? Lyddie's got her own two personal bodyguards right there!"

Gabriella laughed along with her, imagining the scene of Troy and Jack Bolton standing over Lydia and intimidating the poor boy who was trying to win them over.

"Poor Jayden, though," Gabriella finally said quietly. "He really likes her?"

Sharpay nodded with a smile. "He hasn't said. I think he's having a little trouble admitting it to himself. Who'd have thought, ay? Our kids… falling in love…"

"Woah! Let's not get carried away here! You start talking like that and then Troy walking in… That scenario's got heart attack written all over it!"

---

"I don't get what Jay's problem is all of a sudden."

"His problem is Mike, Lyds. You should talk to him."

Lydia shook away Eloise's comment as the two girls walked out of school at the end of the day. "But, why? I know he's never really liked him, but now it's like he wants to start World War Three. I'm serious here, Ellie. This barbeque _has _to go right and if Jay's gonna start something…"

"Well, to be fair to him, he was only doing what any other basketball captain would do."

"He threatened to bench Mike."

"Because he said that Mike hasn't been performing. You know that, too. The last game, coach took him off court pretty much straight away because of all the mistakes he was making. I don't think today was about pissing Mike off, I think he was just doing his job."

Lydia scoffed, even though she saw the truth behind Eloise's words. "You're only saying that because you think Jayden is hot."

"Who doesn't?"

"I don't."

Eloise laughed. "Yeah, because you _see_ him as this friend you've had since _forever_ and therefore think you're incapable of thinking of him as anything more."

"The term friend is used loosely, here."

"Whatever, Lydia. If you switched from reality for just one second, you'd see what every other girl sees in this school."

Lydia shook her head again as the two came to a stop and she scoured the parking lot looking for her boyfriend. Mike was nowhere to be seen. Jayden, however, was standing next to his car surrounded by his friends and team members. Eloise followed her friend's gaze and smiled softly.

"You should go talk to him, you know. You haven't spoken all day."

"With good reason."

"Not really. Everyone says he's a decent guy, and I haven't anything bad to say about him. I really don't think what happened today was an act to spite you or your boyfriend."

"I'm sure Mike would disagree."

"Maybe. But if you want this barbeque to go smoothly, then you better start clearing the air between them."

Lydia huffed. She knew her friend was right, once again. She strolled over towards Jayden, ignoring the knowing looks from some of friends, and came to a stop right in front of him.

"We need to talk." She folded her arms.

Jayden looked at her, surprised, before steering her away from prying gazes. "Oh? We do?"

Lydia gritted her teeth. "You know we do. What was that during practise?"

Jayden feigned confusion. "What was what?"

"You, Jayden, _you! _Having a go at Mike, threatening to bench Mike… _everything_ you're doing jerk-wise to Mike!"

He smiled at her tone, the reddish tint in her cheeks, the fire in her blue eyes. "And, um, _Mike _can't take care of himself?"

"Why are you being like this, Jay?" Her voice lowered, her eyes softened. "We've known each other since always, and okay, yes, we fight and stuff," here, Jayden laughed, "but you've never acted like this before."

The laughter automatically stopped. "Acted like what? I'm acting the same as I've always acted."

"You've never been this jerky."

His eyes burned into hers. "I've always been protective of you, Lyddie. Always. I have issues with Stape, and I'm not gonna pretend I like the dude, but they're _my _issues and anything you think I'm doing to him is because I don't like him is wrong. I wouldn't waste my time on a snivelling weasel like him. _You _and Stape, however, completely different set of issues. You're one of my best friends, and I think he's a moron. If I think you need someone making sure you're okay, then I'll do it, because I _will _waste my time making sure you're okay."

"You're not my dad."

"No, but he's not here now, is he? I'm not trying to piss you off; I'm just making sure you're okay."

"I'm _fine_." Lydia's teeth ground together again.

"Fine isn't good enough for me, Lyds. Sorry."

"Just… ugh! Butt out, Jayden!"

He held his hands up in defence, his gaze staying locked against hers. He looked hurt for a brief second; only a brief second. He looked straight at her, taking in her posture, her anger. He didn't have a comeback - at least one that wouldn't make her blow up in his face. He knew that was totally impossible.

"Jayden!" A high-pitched voice interrupted their interaction, and Lydia's eyes widened slightly upon seeing Clara Sear skip up behind Jayden and playfully dig her fingers into his side.

"Woah, hey, Clara," he answered bashfully, scratching the back of his neck. "What's up?"

"You coming? Everyone's getting kinda antsy and wanna head over to the mall?" She smiled up at him adoringly. "You ready?" Her eyes flickered over Lydia quickly.

Jayden looked at the brunette. "You wanna come, Lyds?"

Lydia swallowed. "I don't think so."

He shook his head in dismay. "You need to stop being so melodramatic."

"No." Her eyes narrowed. "You need to stop making false assumptions and making things worse. I'm waiting for Mike."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "So, you're dating Mike Stape?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"No reason." Clara shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly and slyly slid her arm around Jayden's waist. "Just… maybe it's not Jay here you should be yelling at."

Lydia's eyes raged fire and she ignored Clara's comment and instead looked at Jayden. "Just… stop trying to start fights all the time. That's all I'm asking, okay? I _need _this barbeque to go right and you're ruining it before it's even started. Just promise me you'll lay off Mike. _Please_."

Jayden didn't answer for a moment. "Like I said, I don't waste my time on people like him."

All Lydia could do was watch angrily as Clara steered Jayden away from her and he followed, looking back at her once as one of the hottest seniors walked him back to his friends.


End file.
